I love looking back at old pictures and remembering all the fun times that went along with them. I saw Katie did something like this over on her blog, and I thought it would be fun to do the same! Here's some of the highlights of my 2012 in pictures.

January


My volleyball league kicked off.


I went to a firing range for the first (and last) time ever.

February


I ran in the coldest 5K ever.


I took my first spin class wearing clipless pedals and totally loved it.

March


I spectated Emily running her first marathon ever!!!


I had my first bike crash.

April


I watched space shuttle Discovery fly over DC.


I broke two hours in a half.

May


I did my first open water swim in the Bay! Brrr!!!


I spent the day in NYC with my FitFluential crew for FitBlogNYC.


I did my first tri!

June


My friend Sam got married!


I spent a ton of time at my friends' pool in Annapolis.

July


We won our softball division! (but lost in the playoffs)


I spent a glorious week at Rehoboth beach with my family.


My cousin Kenny got married!

August


I turned 26 and my boss made me a delicious cake!


I went back to NYC to hang out with my favorite bloggers!

September


Tailgate season was here at last!


I hung out with my fam. in Philly for the Temple/Md. game


My friends Amy and Ryan got married!

October


I ran MCM with Emily, Aila and Megan!


My grandma died.


My family ran Baltimore!

November


Had a blast at the LivingSocial 5K dance party with my friends!

December


Stress fracture booo!


We won our flag football league!

2012 was a great year, full of lots of running, new and fun workouts and most importantly lots of time with friends and family. As we get ready to move into 2013, I'm looking forward to keeping the best parts of 2012 and adding in some new things to make 2013 even better. I'll talk about goals for the New Year later this week!

Until then, wishing you a very, very happy New Year!

I've seen this survey floating around lots of running blogs lately, and I loved the way it nicely captured people's year through running. My year has had a lot of ups and downs, but it was fun to look back and remember some of the great races I had this past spring when I was injury free!

Thanks to Miss Zippy for putting this together!

Best race experience? Hands down the Dorchester Crab Run half marathon back in April. I finally, finally broke two hours in a half thanks in large part to some awesome pacing by my friend Zach. It was a happy, happy day!



Best run? Either the impromptu 17-miler I did one random Monday in June to blow off steam or the 18 mile training run I did during MCM training where everything just clicked perfectly and my pace felt easy the whole way.



Best new piece of gear? Probably my Terps Under Armour running top. I had been on the hunt for one of these for a while, so I was super excited when I found it in my school's bookstore.



Best piece of running advice you received? To stop putting so much pressure on myself and just run for fun -- that's when I do the best in races anyway.

Most inspirational runner? I mean there are my favorites like Kara Goucher and Ryan Hall. Watching them perform at such high levels is definitely inspiring.

Then there are my every day blogger friends who inspire me to get out the door: Ericka, Theodora, Meghann, Ashley, Ali. There's tons more and obviously impossible to list them all, but my Google Reader is constantly overflowing with running wisdom and motivation from my "Internet friends."

If you could sum up your year in a couple of words, what would they be? Bi-polar. The first half of 2012 was awesome on the training and racing front. I set PRs in almost every distance I raced and did a pretty solid job at my first tri in May. I was loving every minute of training and racing and just having fun with everything.



But the second half of the year was full of disappointment. I felt like I was training well, but not racing well. I ran MCM, which I was so excited about, but I didn't finish well, in hindsight, probably because I ran the race with a stress fracture in my foot.



I also had a horrible race at the Woodrow Wilson half. Really the back half of 2012 couldn't have been more sucky on the running front.

And it all got capped off with this super sucky stress fracture, which has sidelined me for weeks and is just in general driving me crazy.

I'm more than ready to say goodbye to 2012 and welcome in 2013, when I will hopefully get the all-clear to resume working out again. I have lots of big things planned for 2013 and I can't wait until I can get back to it! I miss running and my CrossFit people like crazy and I'm so, so excited to have a healthy and kick ass 2013!

Man the week before a holiday always seems to drag on forever and ever, but we've finally made it to the end (and I don't mean the end of the world...)

But despite the dragging on, this week was still pretty solid. Here are some of the highlights:

1. Last Sunday, I got into the mood to clean my room top to bottom and completely re-organize my closet. In the process, I found 14 pairs of shoes to donate to GoodWill or Salvation Army. I think more than half of them were running shoes. I have no idea why I horde running shoes so badly, but I still have like six pairs in my closet, that I'm convinced all have a purpose.



(Two that I alternate for actual running. An older pair for cross-training. An even older pair for walking around. An even older pair that I play softball in because they get all gross from the field...the list goes on....don't judge.)

2. I've decided I need more friends who work in private industry so I can go to their baller holiday parties. I went with a good friend of mine to his law firm's party this week and it was a blast. Delicious food, fun people, good wine. Win and win!


Sorry the picture isn't the best. Iphone photo + really bad lighting.

3. If all goes well at the doctor on Jan. 2, yesterday was the last day I had to wear my stupid air cast to the office. I'm on vacation until after the new year, which means hopefully when I'm back in the office I'll be able to rock some of my very neglected cute shoes. Seriously though, everything better go well. I swear I've turned into a rolly-polly blob with all the holiday food and the lack of running and CrossFit.

I hope your last week before the holidays went by quickly and I hope you all enjoy some time off work to be with your family in the next couple of weeks!

Five years ago today, I graduated from the University of Maryland. I was one of those over-achievers that took a whole bunch of extra classes each semester and ended up graduating a semester early.



I woke up this morning asking myself, "Where has the time gone?"



A lot has happened in those five years, much of it which was chronicled here on the blog.

I got my first job.

Moved to a new town where I didn't know anyone to work as a reporter at a newspaper.

After about a year later, I moved back to DC, for my current job, to be in a great city, to be surrounded by my favorite people.



It's where I've been ever since.

In five years, I've stayed incredibly close with my old friends, while making a bunch of new friends.

I've tried new things, joined new teams, done my best to take advantage of all that DC has to offer.

I've grown a lot.

I left college as a baby, barely 21 years old, eager to jump into the working world and try standing on my own two feet for the first time. I got knocked down plenty of times along the way, but I've always managed to pick myself back up.

Now I confidently stand on my own two feet. I have a job I love, in a city that I now call home. I'm comfortable and happy with where I am in life, but I know there's still tons of growing and learning left to be done.



I can only hope to learn as much from the next five years.

Over the weekend my CrossFit gym hosted its annual holiday party.



This meant I had to come up with a paleo-friendly potluck dish....more challenge than it looks people!

I had two very simple requirements for the dish. It had to be fairly easy to make, and it had to have fairly basic ingredients. I wasn't about to spend hours in my kitchen slaving over the stove or spend a ton of money on some weird things I'd only use once.

After Googling for recipe ideas, I settled on this guacamole deviled egg recipe. The ingredients list was simple: Eggs, avocados, hot sauce.

The eggs turned out OK, they seemed to be a hit with the people at the party, but I only thought they were so-so. I love guac. I love deviled eggs. Just didn't so much love them together.



But man some of these paleo people can cook. There was a lot of delicious food at the party, which I felt not so bad eating because it was all fairly healthy. Except for the bacon-wrapped dates, but if they're wrong, I don't want to be right.

At some point during the night, someone pulled out a camera, and this happened.



Yea...I have no words. But wouldn't you love to be coached by these people?



But this is why my CrossFit gym is awesome. Great people. Fun atmosphere. It's somewhere you actually want to go to train.

All pictures from the CrossFit Silver Spring Facebook page. If you'd like to see more awkward family photos, I highly encourage you to check them out.

This week has been full of some crazy highs and lows. Without running it's like I don't know how to properly process my emotions. It's been some sort of crazy bi-polar roller coaster over here.

Wednesday was just a bad, bad day. By the time I was done with work, I was more than ready to crack into a bottle of wine.

In my 26 years on this Earth, I have never once had to dive into a bottle of wine because I was stressed, annoying and just in an all around crappy mood. Usually I run those feelings away, and ride the endorphin high.

But since running isn't an option, I cracked open a nice bottle of Riesling. (And by nice, I mean it had a screw top and not a cork....yea...I keep it classy all the time.)

But this week also had some super fun highlights, so in the spirit of not being a Debbie Downer because of my injury, here are a few awesome things that happened this week!

1. I graduated from my CrossFit intro class on Tuesday night!



YAY! I survived intro to CrossFit and I am so, so ready to tackle regular CrossFit classes -- just as soon as I get out of this boot. I had a really great class with other beginners, and I'm really excited to make a bunch of new CrossFit friends!

2. Our office had its holiday potluck on Thursday.



We ate insane amounts of delicious food and just kicked back and relaxed over our lunch hour. I ate wayyyyy too much food and and I'm still feeling the effects today, but hey you only live once, and you only get to eat your coworkers' delicious homemade treats once each year.



And yea, we got a little festive with my cast, because why not?

3. Emily, my mom and I got into the Nike Women's Half Marathon in DC.



The oh so famous race out in San Francisco is coming to DC for the first time ever this spring. Emily and I were anxiously waiting all week to see if we'd get in, and Wednesday night the outrageously expensive entry fee charge hit our credit cards and we knew we'd gotten in through the lottery. Bring on the hot men in tuxes handing out Tiffany necklaces at the finish line! (Also this race is perfect incentive to actually let me foot heal!)

4. I had dinner with a friend I haven't seen in months.

Sometimes lives get busy, and between my friend moving and changing jobs, we hadn't seen each other since probably June. I was so glad she and I were able to grab dinner Monday night and catch up. We always have a blast together and Monday night was no exception. Perfect way to start the week.

5. We won our football championship game!



Yes, I'm still happy about this even though it happened several days ago. I love, love my rec league teams and I'm super sad the season is over. I only see a lot of my rec league friends when we're in season, so I know I probably won't see most of them again until May when softball picks up. Unless perhaps we finally organize that team happy hour we all keep talking about!

So that was my week of awesomeness! Now it's your turn! Share something that was awesome from your week!

After reading about the awesomeness that is Stitch Fix on Jenna and Sarah's blogs, I figured I had to try it out for myself.

What is Stitch Fix you ask? Well according to the company:

Stitch Fix is a fun and easy way to keep your wardrobe up-to-date. We get your style and size preferences, then send you a package of stylish goodies to try on at home, in your closet, with your favorite jeans and heels.

Basically, you take a pretty in depth survey based on your style preferences, and then the Stitch Fix team ships you a bunch of clothes and accessories to try on at home. You pay $20 to get the shipment, and if you keep anything from the box, that $20 goes toward the price of the item. They give you a pre-paid shipping label for you to return anything you don't want.

For me, queen of Under Armour, with a pretty pathetic fashion sense, Stitch Fix sounded like an easy way to spruce up my wardrobe.

After some major drama with the Post Office and spending way too much time on the phone trying to figure out why they weren't delivering my stuff, my first shipment finally arrived last night.

Here's a glimpse at what was in the box.

Red and black color block dress.



Did my Stitch Fix stylist know I'm a huge Terps fan? And that I go to games a lot right after work? And now I have something awesome to wear on gameday. No, that was all just a coincidence you say? Well lucky, me! I loved this dress and definitely kept it.

Black V-neck blouse.



I actually thought this top was pretty cute. I tried it plain and then added one of my belts to spice it up a bit. But it was just a little too low cut. If I bent over, everyone would get a clear look right down my shirt. This got sent back.

Black cardigan.



I loved the lacey back of this cardigan, but I have a million black cardigans, and didn't really need another one.

Beige sweater.



This sweater was cute, and I've definitely been looking for a beige sweater/sweater dress for a while now. But I didn't love the way it hung. It was too short in the torso and hit my waist at a weird place and overall just wasn't super flattering.

Earrings.



I was in love with these earrings, but I didn't have $48 to spend on them. So they got shipped back too.

My shipment was extremely spot on style and size wise. Everything fit pretty well and it was all stuff I could have definitely seen myself wearing.

One of the things I loved is that each item had a little label on it that suggested different ways you could wear the item -- usually a dressed up and dressed down version. For someone who spent her formative years in Catholic school wearing a uniform and not having to put together outfits, this was hugely helpful.



Unlike most subscription services, with Stitch Fix you don't have to get a new shipment every month. You can schedule regular monthly deliveries, or you can space them out as infrequently as you'd like.

I don't have the world's biggest clothes budget, so I probably won't do another shipment until later this winter or early spring, but I will definitely do it again.

If you're interested in trying it out for yourself, here's where you can sign up!