Tuesdays on the Run: 2014 in Pictures

I’ve been doing a year in pictures post for a few years now.  I love it because I get to look back on my year.  It’s my virtual flipping through the scrapbook of my life.  I was happy I could convince Patty and April that this would make a good topic this week.

January

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January was a really cold month.  I swear it felt like the kids were out of school more than they were in school and I ran a record number of miles on my treadmill.  On the bright side, though, I found out I’d been chosen as a ZOOMA Annapolis Ambassador and I really got moving on my training for 5 half marathons in 5 days.

February

February continued with the cold and snow, making my running a lovely challenge, both in terms of kids being home and roads being awful. I did manage to get outside and got used to running in crazy amounts of layers. To balance the shit-ton of running, I also drank a lot of beer and found a way to justify my scary number of pairs of running shoes.

March

I kicked butt in March. I hit 200 miles for the first time EVER and I ran one of my fastest half marathons in the last few years at RNR USA. I also ran my last double digit training run (I did not run another double digit run that wasn’t a race until the last weekend in November!) and then ran a second half marathon at Caesar Rodney in Delaware.

April

April was just flat out epic! I ran a super hilly half marathon in Charlottesville, ran 5 half marathons in 5 days at the Riverboat Series (3 with my RBF Kim), and wrapped up the month with the Nike Half Marathon.

May

May continued the craziness.  I ran the Frederick Running Festival Half Marathon (and PRed!), the Marine Corps Historic Half, the Alexandria Running Festival Half and then finally crossed the finish line of my 13th half marathon in 79 days at the ZOOMA Annapolis Half.  At the end of it all, I realize that at every.single. race I went through the same five stages of the half marathon.

June

June offered the opportunity to slow down a bit.  I ran the Fit Foodie 5K (and ate my way through the weekend) and was flown to Florida by Gatorade for an amazing visit to the IMG Academy.  I barely ran, but my body thanked me for the break.

July

July was all about fun family trip to Ireland and my first international half marathon on Achill Island.  Other than the race, I barely ran at all, setting myself up for a few months of run struggles.

August

August was its usual fun self.  We went to our annual favorite beer festival, I got to spend two weeks with my parents, the gecko did NOT start a fire this time, and I ran yet another half marathon with my RBF. I’m not a huge fan of being hot, but August is always fun.

September

September was all about falling in love with something new: Ragnar Relays.  I figured out how to pack a ton of stuff into one small bag. I ran a super hot leg, a middle of the night leg, and a fast finish leg.  And I realized that my body was made to run Ragnars.

October

October was all about running one more undertrained half marathon. Yeah, I’m getting good at that.  I ran my West Virginia race in the pouring rain and then volunteered the next day in even worse weather.  I also worked the Woodrow Wilson Bridge Half Marathon, which was even more tiring than running it would have been.

November

November was finally a quiet month from a running standpoint.  My only race was a Turkey Trot with my family.  I needed this time away from running to let my foot heal for a bit.  I did finally run a 10 mile training run. For more fun, I found out that I was a Skirt Sports Ambassador for 2015!

December

And now, here we are in December.  I’ve been kind of beer focused and baked some amazing cupcakes. And I have one more half marathon to round out 2014.  Even better, I just found out that I was chosen for the 2015 RocknBlog team for Rock ‘n’ Roll races.

2014 was pretty amazing.  I hit some pretty lofty goals and I ran some awesome races.  2015 is shaping up to be just as crazy, in a good way.