2013 in Pictures

I do this post every year, more for me than for you.  It gives me a chance to go back and look at how far I’ve come (or in some cases, how far I haven’t).  I blog for lots of reasons, but one of the big ones is that it’s a snapshot of my life.  I suck at scrapbooking, so it’s wonderful to have a virtual scrapbook to look back at each year.

January

January was an interesting month.  I tried (and failed) at Paleo, I did a major mileage build for 5 half marathons in 5 days, and I once again did a 1K beer walk.  Yeah, the beer walk was the best part.

February

February was rough.  I ran my highest mileage week ever. I hated running. I screwed up my calf.  I fell back in love with running. I quit running.

March

March was awesome.  All of my hard work paid off and I ran 5 half marathons in 5 days.  And then I rested.  Yeah, I loved March.

April

I thought my year had peaked in March, but April was pretty darn awesome as well. I was given tickets to the White House Easter Egg Roll.  I had a girls’ weekend with three rockin’ runner girls that included my 6th half marathon.  And I worked my rear off at the Nike Women Half Marathon.

May

May was… interesting.  I ran the Frederick Nut Job (5k Saturday night, half marathon Sunday morning).  Then I decided to step outside my comfort zone and signed up for the North Face trail half marathon.

June

June started off big with the North Face Endurance (ultra) half marathon.  And then I sort of fell off the wagon and took it easy with the running.  This was the beginning of my slide to low mileage.

July

July was an awesome month, unless you are talking about running.  I got hooked on spinning.  I took the boys to the Air and Space Museum, the Natural History Museum, and the National Aquarium.  I also spent a week in Kentucky.  I think I ran, but I’m not even sure.

August

August was a little crazy.  The gecko tried to burn our house down.  I went to my favorite beer festival. I bought a new car. And I realized I still had 5 half marathons to go and I hadn’t run more than 4 miles at a time the entire summer.

September

September was busy with back to school.  I tried to get excited about long runs again. I finally got a bike and actually rode it. And I finally ran a double digit run again.

October

Things picked up again in October. I joined Moms Run This Town. I went to a Mother Runner party.  I wiped out on a run. I ran a half marathon with my dad.  Both boys celebrated birthdays.  It was crazy in a really good sort of way.

November

Another busy month!  I ran two half marathons back to back, worked the coldest water stop ever at Girls on the Run, and started planning my 14 races for 2014.

December

If I was hoping for a roller coaster ride to finish up the year, December did not disappoint.  I ran half marathons number 12 and 13.  I participated in Elf for Health, which was a nice reminder that running isn’t the only thing healthy I should be doing.  I ran every day of the month as part of the RW Run Streak, despite the cold from hell.  And I bought a lot of beer. Oh, and we adopted a cat.  Because a high maintenance gecko just wasn’t enough.

2013 presented its challenges, but overall, it was a pretty amazing year!  Looking foward to taking on 2014!

Have a wonderful (and safe) New Year’s Eve!