Well.. hello!

Well hello there!! Long time no see. It’s been a good ol’ 6 months or so and here I am. back again!

I honestly struggled with having the motivation to write for the first half of this year. I’ve got a list of things I want to write about and a lot to say, but yet I couldn’t sit down and do it.  But I’m hoping with the gorgeous weather comes some more time and motivation to get you guys some good content!

I’ve got some posts planned and they’ll be coming at you soon, but until then here’s a summary of my 2018 in nice, organized bullet points. 🙂

• 2017 ended with the traditional New Years Eve 5k. I ran with some great friends and we had a blast.
  
• I ended 2017 with 1,050 running miles (a new record) and was thrilled to hit 1,000 yearly miles for the second time straight, especially since I didn’t run a full marathon in 2017!
• 2018 started with a new gadget! Well sort of. I participated in a research study and wore the Polar A370 fitness tracker for all of my workouts.  It was a cool experience and one post I want to share is a comparison of this device to my experience with Garmin running watches. 
• In February I registered for my fourth marathon. Eeek! I’ll be running the Steamtown Marathon at the beginning of October. I’ve got some big goals. Training kicked off last week (yes, already!) and I’m excited to get to work.

• March stayed chilly and we had lots of cold, rainy runs. But on the bright side, we launched a new website for the Nittany Valley Half Marathon.  I may have mentioned it before, but I help to organize this race in central Pennsylvania. We are working to make it better every year, so if you’re looking for an inexpensive, smaller race in Pennsylvania you should check it out!
• March also brought one of the coolest things I’ve ever done.  The Road Runners Club of America Level 1 Coaching Certification course! I took the two-day course, passed the written exam (with a 97% woo!) and got my CPR/First Aid Certification. This means I’m now certified to coach runners in helping them achieve their goals!! As part of that, I have launched my coaching business, called Change of Pace Run Coaching. I’ll have a blog post coming up about that soon too!
• March also included a warm Florida vacay and lots of beach front runs. 🙂
• In April I planned to run two races – the Hershey 10k and the Jim Thorpe Half Marathon. Unfortunately, neither of these ended up happening. Hershey got cancelled on account of snow, and the week of Jim Thorpe I got really sick and couldn’t run. I was definitely bummed to miss out, but luckily I had some fun on the horizon!
• April also brought with it the memorial service of a dear friend taken from us way too young from cancer. She was someone who inspired myself and many others to live our best life and enjoy every step we could run. Through the loss, myself and my friends continued to run because we knew that was the best way to cope. She will forever be with me on my run and races.
• May started with the Pittsburgh Half Marathon Weekend, and for the first time I ran the Steel Challenge, completing the 5k on Saturday and the half marathon on Sunday! It was a blast with a lot of my closest friends and the perfect way to continue enjoying life after a loss.  I’ll have recaps of this weekend coming up soon too!
• In mid-May my dad and I ran the Marine Corps Historic Half which was a tough race but so great! Race recap of this coming soon too! (Notice a pattern?)
• Memorial Day weekend included a new-to-me local 10k that was a killer – so hilly! But it was a great way to kick off the long weekend. 
• And here we are, June! I started the month running the half marathon relay at RunFest Philadelphia with a friend.  I’m gearing up for my birthday in a few days and am thoroughly enjoying the weather taking a turn and being awesome!

More soon!