2012/2013

A bit late to the game on this one but eh, might as well post, right? After all, 2012 was a pretty darn good one for me!

Watched the fireworks and the Emerald Nuts Midnight Run
in Central Park this year!

Here's my 2012 in running:

• Best race experience: No-brainer (also I only ran in two races last year!) - Chicago Marathon. Worked my ass off for that sub-4 and was rewarded with a time that shattered my expectations.
• Best run: 20.5 miles in DC three weeks before the marathon - the weather was great, I ran fast, I felt awesome. It was the perfect pre-race confidence booster!
• Best new piece of gear: Brooks Defyance - I swear, they are making me faster.
• Best piece of running advice you received: I really enjoyed my friend Zack's text the night before the Chicago Marathon, which read, "Don't be polite. Draw some blood!" Beyond that I don't think I really got a lot of running advice - I also didn't really seek any out and relied on ME to stay motivated. My marathon day mantra of "Be fearless. Be relentless. Be limitless" seems like pretty good advice, too.
• Most inspirational runner: I'm inspired by just about every runner I meet and whose blog I read. We're all sort of in this together - juggling a job with fun with training and I think it's really interesting to read about how we're all doing this to accomplish a similar goal. My good friends Lani, Christina and Shawna inspire me as well!
• If you could sum up your year in a couple of words, what would they be?: Oh gosh...hmm. 2012 was really about the marathon for me - breaking four hours. When I did that, I shattered what I thought I could accomplish. Throughout that training cycle, I became the kind of runner I want to be, and now I know for certain that (as Chrissie Wellington has said) my limits might not be where I think that they are, and that I can push them farther than I had imagined possible.

Recap of my 2012 goals:

• Finish P90X - did pretty well on this! I think I ended up doing 78 days before I decided to focus a bit more on running than P90X - but I did get a lot stronger (especially in my shoulders - I think my best plank was 4 minutes!) and enjoyed P90X a lot!
• Run a sub-4 marathon - CHECK! 3:47:40 in Chicago!
• PR in the half marathon - CHECK! 1:57:44 in the RNR DC half!
• Be totally injury-free all year - CHECK!!! This is probably one of the more important goals that I accomplished - SO happy I was injury-free all year!
• Do 9+1 - NOPE. Just wasn't motivated to race so much - plus I feel like I was traveling all. the. time. in 2012. Maybe this year!
• Go to a new country/state - CHECK! Nebraska and Illinois can be crossed off my state visits! Also went to Cape Cod and Santa Barbara for the first time, which was awesome.
• Go to the Astoria beer garden - NUH UH! Ugh. THIS YEAR!
• Explore as much as I possibly can in New York - check-ish? I feel like I did a pretty good job! There's still lost more left to see and do though!

And now for my 2013 goals:

• PR in the half: I feel like this is totally doable. I ran a 1:51 in the second half of the Chicago Marathon, so I think I should be able to break 1:50 - sub-1:45 would be SO awesome though. I have two chances this spring (NYC Half and Long Branch Half)! Definitely going to make them count!
• Be injury-free all year: I've found a great training plan that works well for me (Run Less Run Faster) and I'm going to stick to it.
• Try out a new exercise class: I joined the Refine Resolution Challenge - my first class is on Wednesday and I've been buddied up with the wonderful Dori! I can't wait to get started!
• Move up in bib numbers for NYRR races: I renewed my membership and hope to do more races this year - right now I'm at 8:59 (and that's from approximately three years ago!) so I think I should be able to do this!
• Go to the Astoria beer garden, the Tenement Museum and the Guggenheim: Been in NYC five years, and I have yet to check of any of these! 
• Have an amazing vacation somewhere I've never been before: Well I'm going to Mexico with my mom in October, so that should definitely be doable!
• Roast a chicken: Never done it! I really want to do it. Don't ask me why, I just do.
• Read more: I did a pretty good job of reading this year - a move to Harlem means more time on the subway (eight stops instead of two plus a crosstown walk when I lived on the UES) so I'd like to keep reading more books (and the New Yorker).
• With that - read the books I already have sitting on my bookshelf! I have SO many but I'm never in the "mood" to read them...must improve this.

There are probably more to add...but those are the ones that come to mind right now. 

Let's see if I can do it...here's to 2013 being even more awesome than 2012!

2011/2012

Happy New Year!!! I kind of can't believe that 2011 is over -- it was a big year, with lots of travel and exciting changes.

In February, my family took a 2 1/2 week trip to China, Thailand and Hong Kong. These were all new countries that I got to tick off while visiting my brother who's teaching English over there until July. We visited during Chinese New Year, which was awesome. We went to Beijing, Dali, Kunming, Phuket and several islands around Phuket, and Hong Kong.

Chinese New Year fair in Beijing

Me in Dali

An island somewhere off of Phuket

Long tails off of an island

My brother and me at Victoria Peak

As you can imagine, it was pretty much the best vacation ever.

The next big event of 2011 was running my first marathon on May 1 along the C&O Canal in Maryland. It was an exhilarating experience, and I worked my ass off to run a 4:13:12 marathon.

Super excited!

Even better? I trained injury-free for 18 weeks. Yes, two of those weeks were spent in Asia, which probably didn't hurt in helping me avoid injury, but it was pretty great to train for a marathon and never have an injury. Next time I hope I'm as smart as I was then...

After the marathon, I took a trip to Seattle and Portland with Lani and Emily for our annual trip. We met when we transferred to the same college at the same time, and now we take a trip someplace new every year.

Pastry from Piroshky Piroshky near Pike Place

In 2008 we went to South Dakota and Wyoming, 2009 was Vegas, southern Utah and the Grand Canyon, and 2010 was Boston. We're hoping that we can make 2012 an international destination (even if it's just Canada) for the fifth annual ELM trip.

In June, I started a new job and geared up for more marathon training. I didn't blog at all in June, but I took Core Fusion classes for two weeks through a Gilt City deal I got. It was a nice change from running all the time, but come July I was ready to train!

(Most of my pictures from the summer involve sweaty pictures of myself that I've already posted here, so I'll spare you...)

But I fit in some fun, and in July my friend Jennifer (who lives in Zurich) came to visit. It was so fun to show her around my city and spend time with her. I saw Sufjan Stevens in concert, ate crabs in Maryland, and went to Coney Island for the day. On the running front, I ran Summer Streets, took many pictures of gorgeous sunrises, and drank a lot of coconut water.

In October I turned 27 and PR'ed at the Staten Island Half Marathon, finally running a sub-2 hour half marathon and clocking in at 1:58:59. Before I knew it, November 6 was there and I ran the New York City Marathon, PRing in that race with 4:06:31.

Sweaty and happy

As you've read, this was pretty much the best day of my life. I absolutely loved this race, and I plan on finding a way to run it in 2012. I will definitely be doing the 9+1 program again this year for guaranteed entry into the 2013 NYC Marathon.

After the race, I treated myself to a 10-day adventure in Europe, stopping by London and Zurich (Part 1 and Part 2) and squeezing in a couple of runs there as well. When I got back, I found out that I had a stress fracture and have put running on hold (only 2 1/2 weeks to go till I can run again!).

But just because I can't run doesn't mean I can't stay fit. The doctor said I could do absolutely everything except run, so I've been hitting the elliptical and StairMaster, spinning, and walking on the treadmill for cardio, and taking yoga classes and doing strength workouts as well. Just last week, I added P90X to the mix and so far I'm loving it (though we'll see how I feel in 83 days...). 

And as for my goals for 2012? (Yup, goals, no resolutions here.) 

• Finish P90X - this will happen
• Run a sub-4 marathon - ohhh how I would love for this to happen...
• PR in the half marathon - it'd be icing on the cake!
• Be totally injury-free all year - I know what I did wrong, and I know how to avoid injury in the future
• Do 9+1 - this shouldn't be a problem
• Go to a new country/state - already planning my 2012 adventure! Spain? Portugal? Somewhere else?
• Go to the Astoria beer garden - this has been something I've wanted to do since I moved to New York. I WILL do it this year!
• Explore as much as I possibly can in New York - see new things, try new things, meet new people

There are probably more, but I think this is a good place to start! 

I hope you all had a wonderful 2011. Mine was pretty great, and I think 2012 is going to be an awesome year!

I didn't freeze to death!

And I met my goal!

It was absolutely frigid, but I think my legs were numb so it made the race in the cold slightly more bearable. I had a really great time at this race, and it was definitely good for me to see how the NYRR races are set up since I'll be running a lot of them this year!

I kept an eye on my Garmin to see what my pace was, but I started it a little early so the splits by mile are a little bit off. I'll have to be a little less trigger-happy next time and wait till I actually cross the start line to start the Garmin. Here's the first of many maps to come involving Central Park:

After the race, a bunch of people who met through Meghann's blog had brunch at Arte Cafe  - I met Meghann, Dori, Ashley, Melissa, and some other great girls who ran the race too. I had a delicious omelet with goat cheese and spinach, and was so full from the chocolate chip bagel I had after the race that I took half of the omelet home.

Brunch was followed by the obligatory post-race nap (after the obligatory post-race shower, of course), then lots of food for Super Bowl Sunday. My friend invited me over, and my roommate and I ate our body weight in homemade baked ziti, hummus, veggies, crackers, and of course, brownies, cookies and beer. All in all it was a successful race day and Super Bowl Sunday!

I'll be planning my future races for this year soon so let me know if you're running in any I should know about!