Luckily, January was not the precedent for the year. It started off with confirmed Covid for Adam and pretty-sure-but-not-confirmed Covid for me. I couldn’t find a test and I work from home so I just stayed inside for a week. My symptoms weren’t too bad while it was happening, but I felt really, really tired while running for the 2 weeks afterwards.
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| After the one good run I had in January |
February
February was much better! I tagged along for quite a few mountain runs each weekend. Spending time on the trails in the winter is my favorite and I was finally feeling like myself again after January.
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| Winter running with the girl gang on the BMT |
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| More girl gang, more BMT |
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| More girl gang, AT |
I decided at the last minute to jump into the Atlanta Marathon on February 27th as a fun run. I started the race pretty conservatively, but the cold rain made me want to get it over with quickly. I squeaked out a baby BQ with a 3:38:41 finish.
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| A very rainy and cold Atlanta Marathon |
March
The 3rd month of the year really was the kickoff of many adventures to come. Adam and I went to LA mid-month for his cousin’s daughter’s bat mitzvah. I found a last minute 50k in nearby Griffith Park to run that Saturday morning. It was a full day of running and partying, but I had a ton of fun doing both. Despite the travel and new-to-me trails, I ended up having a really great race and was feeling pretty proud of myself for squeezing it all in.
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| Griffith Park 50k |
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| Took 0 pics of the bat mitzvah, but a rare pic of me with lipstick on |
Back on the east coast, the RippedTents crew booked a cabin in North Carolina for the last weekend of the month. We cooked a family meal Friday night, ran Saturday morning, hit up a brewpub for a very late lunch, and relaxed in the hot tub in the evening. It was a perfect little 48 hours of escape.
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| Smokies with the RT crew |
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| Rippedtents Crew |
April
I turned the big 4-0 in April! The day itself was rather uneventful as I was gearing up to head to Boston for my 8th Boston Marathon the following morning. I raced the 5k on Saturday and had a repeat of years past - first mile slow, second mile tempo, third mile “burn the boats pace”.
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| Post B.A.A. 5k |
Adam, Roger, and I met up with my mom and her cousin in the North End that night to celebrate my birthday and enjoy a dinner together.
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| Roger, Adam, and I dressed for dinner |
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| HBD to me |
Because I’ve had the privilege of running the marathon so many times, my coach and I decided that I should just throw caution to the wind and see just how fast I could go. I still went out at a pace that was possibly sustainable and it paid off! I held onto it and finished in my 3rd fastest marathon time ever, 3:16:58.
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| Pure joy at the Boston Marathon finish line |
There was no rest for the weary after this though because Roger and I had planned to do Rim to Rim to Rim at the Grand Canyon just 11 days after Boston. The entire weekend was quite an endurance event, but wow, what a beautiful and memorable adventure.
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| Climbing the North Rim of the Grand Canyon |
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| Finisher pic of R3 |
MayAfter two successive big running events, I had a little bit of downtime in May to get my body back in order. I did some easy efforts and started practicing using my trekking poles which I knew I needed to get comfortable with prior to Eiger.
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| Trekking pole practice atop Blood Mountain |
Adam and I went to Miami over Memorial Day weekend in hopes to see our newest nephew. Unfortunately, he was not quite ready to come home yet from the NICU, but he’s happy and healthy now. We did get to spend the weekend hanging out with the rest of the family and I got my yearly taste of running in south Florida (re: muggy, hot, ew).
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| Got caught in a thunderstorm in MIA |
June
My last training block before Eiger went really well in June. I spent a lot of time on the weekends on trails and was feeling happy with where I was fitness-wise.
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| Group run at Jake/Bull |
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| Somewhere near Tray Mountain (I loathe summer, but the AT is so beautiful in June in GA!) |
Cassy invited me to come pace her at Western States (!!) and so I spent the last weekend in June watching her dreams come true. It was a weekend full of belly laughs with Katherine and Jared. As crew, we ended up doing the Hoka High Camp Challenge on Friday, a 5k that is the very first section of the WS100 course. And then we got ourselves up suuuuuper early on Saturday to watch the sunrise and the runners at the top of the escarpment. I paced Cassy from the American River to Pointed Rocks and felt so lucky to be a part of her magical day. The bonus was that I got to see a lot of old friends who were out running and supporting!
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| Cassy & her crew |
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| Hoka High Camp Challenge |
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| Megan, Me, Laura (Loop friends!) |
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| View from the Escarpment |
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| Found my Italian friend Davide in California |
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| Megan & Kynan |
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| Cassy getting a hug from Jared at the finish |
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| Meeting Alice and seeing Mark again after many years |
July
Back home, we had our annual 4th of July party and the following weekend, I did a very rainy 5k with Gael and Sarah, friends from high school.
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| Jeff and the kiddos blowing stuff up at 4th of July |
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| 5k with Gael and Sarah |
Then, it was off for the main event! While Eiger was not the race I wanted (DNF’d at mile 41ish), it was absolutely spectacular and I am so happy I had the opportunity to run what I did. It didn’t mar the rest of the week for us in the least thankfully. We pit-stopped for a passport stamp in Liechtenstein, had many liters of beer in biergartens in Germany, went on a wild road trip through Austria, and went on another unsuccessful runventure back in Switzerland. I visited Dachau and Neuschwanstein, rode the Brienz Rothorn Railway and the Männlichen gondola, ate 15 croissants and 15 pounds of cheese, drank Aperol Spritzes and cappuccinos by glacial lakes, and laughed until I cried.
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| 1st climb of Eiger |
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| Race day views |
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| Eating snacks with Roger during the race |
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| The climb that killed me (zoom in to see where we came from on the right) |
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| #overit #dnf |
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| A passport stamp and croissant in Liechtenstein |
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| Munich influencer pic |
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| This selfie will never be not funny (at Neuschwanstein) |
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| Drinking in Austria |
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| Grimsel Pass |
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| A cappuccino next to Grimselsee |
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| View from our room at Brienz Rothorn |
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| Day drinking in Roger's home town |
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| View of Thun from the Ferris wheel |
August
August was back to reality with the doldrums of summer.
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| Summer sucks face |
I thought about chasing another WS qualifier in the fall, but decided to sign up for a 24 hour track race instead in November. I would be coming off training for Chicago and hoped that I could at least make it to 100 miles. It was a struggle to get back to workouts after Eiger and I even went to the doctor to see if there was something else going on with me. I ended up finding out one of my thyroid markers was way off and have been taking low dose meds (and have been feeling way better). Angela raised a TON of money for Epilepsy Life and I went out to support her and her team by walking a 5k.
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| Epilepsy Life crew |
September
Though I really wanted to go participate in the running leg of the Chattanooga Ironman, I settled for spectating instead. I did lots of long road runs on the weekends and got myself used to running for hours on pavement in preparation for Chicago. Things were feeling really good though and once we had a few cooler days, I felt like maybe I could make a swing for my PR if the weather was good in Chicago.
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| Sock & shoe testing for Chicago |
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| Aaron in the finish chute of IM Chattanooga |
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| Trey in the finish chute of IM Chattanooga |
October
The weather was great in Chicago, but I rode the strugglebus from the beginning and just couldn’t quite push down the pace enough. I ended up with a 3:20:53, a great time, but not what I was shooting for. The weekend was quick with a Saturday arrival and Sunday departure, but I ended up sharing a lot of it with Allison and Ben who made it that much more fun.
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| With Ben & Allison at the Willis Tower |
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| Pretending I'm having fun |
I volunteered at Bull Mountain the following weekend and then spent the next few weeks just enjoying the in between of races. I took a few trips to see the fall colors and finally had some decent weather.
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| View from Blood Mountain |
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| Somewhere along the AT |
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| View from Arkaquah near Brasstown |
Adam and I went to McDonald's for Halloween buckets for our anniversary. On Halloween, I FINALLY fulfilled my lifelong dream of being the cool house with full-sized candy bars.
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| Happy Meal Anniversary |
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| Full-sized candy bars! |
November
The Stinger 24 Hour snuck up on me and all of sudden, I realized I was going to be running for a very long time on basically just marathon training. The weather ended up being all over the place - overcast, warm, raining, windy, and freezing cold. I think I used all of my clothing and the jacket that they gave us. Luckily, I had a good race and stayed in a really happy headspace all day. It was fun to share the day (and night) with Katherine and Aaron. Kudos to David for crewing us for hours in the freezing cold! I finished with 108.69 miles, very close to the mileage I completed at my first 24 hour event.
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| Warm during the day |
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| Getting colder, but still have fun |
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| Very cold, very tired (probably mile 107 or so) |
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| Rippedtents podium sweep |
Sadly, we had to put down Tory, our oldest Boston Terrier in mid-November due to congestive heart failure. She lived a long and healthy life, but it was still tough to say goodbye. Roger came to visit for Thanksgiving and took over the other BTs, Moe and Riley.
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| My sweet and crazy Tory girl |
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| Post Thanksgiving at the German restaurant with Adam, Roger, Cassy, & Jared |
December
Back for my 9th Rehoboth Marathon and just 3 weeks after The Stinger, I waited until race weekend to figure out a strategy. I was feeling healthy after The Stinger, but also wanted to respect all the miles I had put on my legs and not dig myself into a hole. I felt that a 3:35 would be a good goal to chase and was not afraid to pull back or push ahead depending on how the race unfolded. Luckily, I felt pretty good throughout and pushed the last 10k to finish with a 3:32:55. This is just ONE SECOND from the very first Rehoboth I raced in 2013 which I thought was pretty neat after nearly a decade of chasing BQs. As usual however, the race was just a stepping stone for the real reason I go to Delaware every year, the after party!
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| Rehoboth #9 |
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| Rehoboth peeps at Dogfish Head |
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| Beer tent! |
A week later, I was in Salina, KS to celebrate my grandma’s 100th birthday with my family. It was a quick trip, but we hit all the town highlights and reminisced about all the years we’ve been visiting. As I keep saying, I’ve never lived there, but it always feels like going home to me.
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| Grandma's 100th! |
All in all, it was a pretty amazing year of saying goodbye to my 30s and welcoming in the 40s. I did a bunch of traveling for both running and family. I stayed healthy throughout the year and was able to consistently run, but took recovery days/weeks as necessary. I ran everything from the 5k to 108.69 miles, PRing in nothing, but hey, I guess they are all now master’s PRs? I got better at taking my easy days easier and actually enjoyed speed work (sometimes).
I read a ton of books, enjoyed a bit of gardening this summer, completed a few Lego sets, and added a few new favorite recipes to my repertoire. I laughed until I cried many, many times, tried new things and failed (Eiger), tried old things and succeeded (Boston), and was lucky to share this great big beautiful life with lots of incredible people.
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