run this amazing day

So, this post comes along with a higher-than-usual amount of navel-gazing and vanity reflection.  If that kind of thing makes you want to set your eyeballs on fire, this is your warning to click away. Last January I raced a 10K in Bear Creek Park.  On the scale of all of the things in the universe, it ranked a relatively awful.  My knee hurt, a lot, it had been hurting for a while and I was rotating through shoes and bike fits and physical therapists and general acts of complete desperation.  I slaughtered myself for a 57:11.  My biggest superfan in the world came along and cheered and took pictures and I spent most of the drive home reviewing them in abject horror.  I never even posted a race report about the race, I was so disgusted with myself, the day I had, the state my body was in.  Frustrated that I've spent so much time and energy and certainly money on this sport that I claim to love and I can't even run 9 minute pace for an hour on a random Sunday morning and I end

Every year, I take the off-season more seriously. Last year I was forced into it by a yes-I'll-finally-admit-it-was-broken arm, but that combined with an unsatisfying race meant I was itching to get back training by about mid-December.  I think I gave myself about a week or so of rest and then I filled the rest of the month by trying to do things my body wasn't ready for (see: swimming), getting annoyed, saying fuck it  and drinking beer, rinse and repeat.  I was thrilled when the colored boxes of January 1 showed back up in my life. This year was different.  There was absolutely no itch.  And I think that's part of being incredibly grateful for a solid season.  If we're counting, which obviously I am because I'm the boss around here, I PR'd every leg of every distance that I raced this year, and some of those were significant.  But WAY more important than any PRs, I figured out some of my shit.  I made changes.  I tried new things.  I was healthy, credit

Life has been crazier than usual lately, and blogging has gotten pushed pretty far down the priority list, but I put together this little video instead of the year in races and year in photos recap posts I usually do.  Happy New Year, everyone!

When I first started blogging, I blogged every weekday, five posts a week.  I would usually write it the night before and then post the next morning.  I loved becoming a part of that community, I met people, lots of people, friends that have stayed in my life to this day.  When I went back through my iPhoto albums looking for a picture to post here, I discovered that there were too many.  Too many bloggers, many now defunct or retired, that have become true friends, Kirstin Amy Liz Allison Emily Heather Amy Caroline Sarah the other Emily both the redheads Beth Jason Anabel Yasi and a thousand more, people I never would have known, my life would have been less sparkly without them.   Over time, it became a chore.  When I moved to Colorado at the end of 2012, I decided I wasn't going to blog every day , not anymore.  Instead I was only going to talk when I felt like I had something to say.  So the wordless whatever posts stopped, the random posts stopped, the lists stopped, and fo