I've already written about my 2015 running goals (stay injury free), and I've been thinking a lot about my other goals for the upcoming year

Two years ago, going in to 2013 I had three really big goals I was chasing, and they truly shaped my year.

One was career-related, one was to find an apartment I loved and one was friends and relationships related.


My apartment that I love

I rocked the first two and give myself a C+ on the other one (I'm a harsh critic). Overall not bad.

I loved the structure of breaking my goals down into categories so I had different things to focus on throughout the year. Plus it made sure I was focused on more than just one thing all the time.

I had planned on setting similar goals in 2014, buuuuuuut the year got off to a rocky start. Turns out getting dumped on New Year's Eve will throw you for a loop (seriously who dumps someone on NYE?!?).

Since I spent the start of the year nursing a broken heart, I never really set good strong goals. But that's not to say 2014 was a completely waste.

I mean I started my MBA, launched some big work initiatives, bought a new car (mainly because I got in a bad accident that totaled my old one...), and spent a ton of time snuggling with my baby cousins.


New car!


Baby cousins (and some adult cousins too!)

So all was not lost even though I didn't set any big goals at the start of the year.

But I like setting goals and having things to work toward, and since there's zero chance I start 2015 all broken-hearted and weepy, I figured it's an ideal time to take all the great ideas I have for goals and maybe figure out which ones I want to commit to in 2015.

I've been thinking about goals related to school, work, life, wanting to read more, wanting to write more, wanting to make time to do more with friends, wanting to try new things, wanting to step back and just breath and not be so go, go, go all the time.


I want to read all the books

Really, I've overwhelmed myself trying to come up with specific, actionable goals for this year (which probably surprises no one who knows me well).

So to make it simple, I boiled it down to these three:

1. Get Good Grades - My MBA is a huge priority for me right now, and while I know B's get degrees, A's are so much prettier to look at.

2. Write More - Whether that's here on the blog or the occasional freelance piece, I haven't quite decided. But I like writing, and I want to do more of it in 2015.

3. Spend more time with people who add value to my life and less time with those that don't. This goal is really all about growing the relationships that mean the most to me and cutting out those that are just constant energy drains.

So that's it. Those are the three big things I want to focus on this year.

What about you? Are you setting goals for the New Year?

I made some last-minute changes to my travel itinerary for the holidays, so I fueled up (both me and my car) and hit the road this morning back to PA.


Yes that's a venti. Don't judge.

And now that I'm home, I figure it's time to post that race recap from the Jingle All the Way 5K from a few weeks ago. I know I'm super far behind, but in my defense I was waiting for the official pictures to be posted.


Not an official picture of me and Emily pre-race

This race was the day after the Ugly Sweater run that I did with Emily, Jennifer and Anne, and I managed to convince Emily to run it with me because there was a promise of pictures with "sexy Santa."



And also Mrs. Claus



Yes, we signed up for this race because of the photo ops, but that's obviously not why we loved it.

This race is put on by Pacers, which hands down organizes on some of the best races in the DC-area. Well-run, tons of fun, excellent volunteers. I've never had a bad experience at a Pacers race.

I had done this race years ago, back when it was a 10K and out on Hains Point. Since then, they've moved the race to a way better location and made it an 8K.

This year though because of some construction, it was a 5K, which was perfect since I wasn't in shape for anything much more than that.

The weather was way colder for this race than it was for our race the day before, so I busted out my Under Armour cold gear for the second time of the season.



The race started out down Pennsylvania Avenue right toward the Capitol. This is why I love DC running. You just can't beat the sights.



Photo from Swim Bike Run Photography  

The sun came out as we got moving, which helped warm things up a bit. It was still pretty chilly in the shade, but in the sun, it was comfortable.

After a nice tour of some of DC, we looped past to the Capitol and headed back up Pennsylvania Avenue to the finish line.

I finished in 27:27, which is not a bad time, especially considering I'm just starting to get back to regular running.


Post-run sweaty selfie

This race officially wrapped up my racing calendar for 2014. It wasn't the most banner year of running, but I like to think I at least finished on a positive note.

Last week, when I was buried under finals stress, I desperately wanted to squeeze in a few quick runs to break up the monotony of studying and get some fresh air.

So I decided to do a short loop around the most blinged-out holiday lights house in the DC area.



The Bishop's House, as it's known around here, is famous for its over-the-top holiday lights. I've run past it a few other years, but this time I stopped to grab a couple of pictures.



I can't even imagine what the energy bill must be on this place during this time of year. It's so lit up, I'm sure NASA satellites could see it from space.

My run was short, only about a 2.5 mile loop, but it was a nice way to break up the studying and I got to see some Christmas cheer on the way.

I also really enjoyed this house up the street with tons of those inflatable yard decorations.



Ok, ok and now for the part that everyone is really here for today -- the winner of the TomTom Cardio Runner GPS watch. My good friend the random number generator picked Katie as our winner!



Katie said her fitness goal for 2015 was to strength train and do more core work.

Congrats Katie! Shoot me an email and we'll get you hooked up with your watch!

And thanks to everyone who shared their fitness goals yesterday! I really enjoyed reading what you all plan to tackle in the New Year! It's super motivating for me!

This post is sponsored by TomTom (and there's a fun giveaway at the end for you!)

I got my new copy of Runner's World in the mail the other day, and the New Year's issue always gets me excited to start thinking about what I want to do in terms of running in the next calendar year.



For years my goals were always big races -- marathons or half marathons.

But this year, I'm thinking about going in a bit of a different direction.

If you've been reading for a while now, you know that last two years have been littered with injuries. Between my two broken feet, plantar fasciitis and torn meniscus, I've spent more time injured than healthy in the last 24 months.





So my running goal for 2015 is to simply run healthy and bring the fun back to my running.

How am I going to do that?

By being realistic and smart about my training.

I have a tendency to be a little bit stupid with my running. I don't run my easy runs slow enough, I don't ever pay attention to my heart rate.

But my new TomTom Runner Cardio GPS watch will help me with some of that.

One thing I really like about this watch is that the heart rate monitor is built right in. That means you don't need to worry about a separate chest strap, which up to this point is why I have never, ever paid attention to my heart rate. The watch detects your pulse in your wrist.



And then after you're done with your run it gives you a break down of what ranges your heart rate fell in during the workout.

I like how clear and easy to read the display is.

The watch also captures all the other important running data you might want: pace, distance, time, etc.


Don't judge my slowness here. I stopped to take a lot of pictures of Christmas lights on this run and kept forgetting to pause the watch.

I'm hoping that by paying more attention to my heart rate and making sure that I'm running my easy runs at a slow enough pace that I'll be able to enjoy 2015 without any injuries.

Want to try the TomTom Runner Cardio GPS watch yourself? Well lucky for you I've got one to giveaway.

To enter to win, simply leave a comment telling me what your 2015 fitness goals are. Entries will be open until Tuesday at midnight ET.

(Be forewarned, this post is full of adorable baby pictures! In fact, if you look at the approximately 1,000 pictures currently saved on my phone, I'd say at least half of them are pictures of all my baby cousins. Totally normal right?)

I cannot believe it has been an entire year since my cousin's twins were born.

It seems like just yesterday they were teeny tiny babies getting out of the NICU, and now they're these big walking, babbling boys.


Patrick on the left, Cameron on the right, a few weeks old


Patrick left, Cameron right, today

It's been so much fun watching them grow up this year.


Sometimes around two-ish months


In Terps gear from their Auntie Jess


5ish months


10ish months

We celebrated today with lots of gifts and some cake and ice cream. The boys even got their very own cupcakes.

Cameron was a little unsure what to make of the cupcake.



But Patrick was definitely all about it. He was loving that chocolate icing.





The boys pulled in quite a haul in terms of presents -- lots of toys (loud, noisy ones that I'm sure mom and dad just love) and tons of sports baby clothes. Auntie Jess was obviously on the sports gear side of the gift-giving.



Cameron and Patrick now have sweet new Maryland outfits since they grew out of their last ones. They'll be all set to cheer on the Terps (who are currently in first place in the Big Ten in basketball!)

We all had a really great time, and the boys seemed to love having everyone there and playing with their big cousins.



On the way out, Laura sent us home with some favors. I got little handprints the boys made in daycare.



Obviously going on my fridge immediately.

1. I fall asleep on top of my textbooks and wake up thinking maybe I learned something through osmosis.

2. I'm living on a steady diet of cereal and foods that come out of my freezer. Who has time to make real food when I could be studying? And at least it's better than the steady diet of raw cookie dough I used to subsist on during finals week in college.

3. I'm desperate to get out of the house to go for a run, but don't want to sacrifice the time it really takes, so I run around the block twice and call it a day.

4. I skip a Terps basketball game in favor of studying. (I died inside a little bit Wednesday night, but did put the game on mute in the background.)

5. I ignore pretty much all phone calls and text messages because I just can't be bothered.

Oh finals week, something I definitely haven't missed since college.

It's been a high stress, low sleep kind of week for me and I'm so looking forward to Saturday afternoon when I'm officially on winter break.

http://youtu.be/bfswn6e3b_Y

We're going to go a bit off the normal topics that I blog about here and tackle something a little more serious because I have a lot of thoughts and feelings on this Rolling Stone/U-Va. cluster-F.

Some background before we dive into this:

I'm a journalist by trade, and though I don't work in a newsroom practicing the craft on a daily basis anymore, I still put a lot of weight in the basic tenants of journalism.

I have the utmost respect for the reporters who are out there every day chasing stories, tracking down leads, talking to uncooperative witnesses to keep the rest of us in the loop on what's going on in the world.

It's why I teach a college-level intro to reporting class to aspiring reporters (though I'm on a hiatus now because of grad school).

But, I also have some pretty major personal biases when it comes to this story, so I'm going to put them out there because I know they color my opinion on this whole thing. In no way do I claim to be unbiased about any of this.

When I was in high school and college, two people I am very close to were raped at Maryland.

I will never, ever forget the shock, horror and complete terror I felt when I first found out.

As a result, I didn't drink during my first three years of college. I can count the number of frat parties I went to on one hand, and heaven knows I never touched the Jungle Juice (Lord only knows what they threw in that stuff.) I was the kid who made sure all her friends got home safely from said parties, no matter how much they drank.

In the Greek system, I believe that was the role played by the "sober sister." In my world, it was just being a good friend.

As a result of all this, I will also 110% always, always believe the survivor.

So on that basic, human level, I understand why the Rolling Stone reporter and the many editors and legal people who reviewed the piece believed Jackie's story. It's very, very hard to imagine someone would make up something that traumatic.

But that Rolling Stone reporter and all those editors had a journalistic responsibility to fact check every single element of that story. They don't get to just accept a source at her word, especially not in a case like this.

I don't care that Jackie asked them to not talk to anyone about it. If as a news organization, you're going to run that story, you damn well better do your homework.

Because you know what happens now? Now people think Jackie's a liar and maybe the whole thing is made up, and maybe rape on college campuses isn't really that big of a deal, and this whole thing is getting overblown for no reason, because some overzealous reporter wanted to write a "gotcha" story.

And that, quite frankly, sucks. Because rape on college campuses is a problem.

It happens all too often, it's grossly underreported and when it is reported, it's often swept under the rug -- especially if the offender is a rich, privileged kid or (god-forbid for the university) a scholarship athlete.

I believe something happened to Jackie. I don't know what. I doubt it's exactly what Rolling Stone reported, but something happened to her. You don't go public with a story like that (even if your name is withheld) if it's completely false.

Somewhere in that story is a kernel of truth, and it was Rolling Stone's responsibility to ask more questions, to get at that exact story and to report on the facts that actually happened.

In journalism school, we teach fair and balanced reporting. That means giving all parties the opportunity to tell their side. As a reporter you don't get to pick and choose your sources so that it makes for a better story. You have to dig and dig until you talk to everyone. You never accept one person's story as the cold, hard facts -- even if that person is a rape survivor with a very powerful and convincing story.

So what Rolling Stone did was a majorly epic journalism fail. The gross irresponsibility in reporting truly blows my mind.

And while my heart breaks for Jackie that she experienced any sort of trauma, I can't help but be a little frustrated with the inconsistencies in her story.

Rape and sexual assault on college campuses are such a massive issues that desperately need to be addressed. But it's hard to hold this up as an example of why that's the case when it's so easy to punch holes in Jackie's story with even a little bit of digging and fact checking.

Jackie's story certainly called attention to the issue, but now it's too easy for people to brush it off as a bunch of lies, half-truths or fabrications. And that does a massive disservice to anyone who is brave enough to report this kind of crime in the future.

A few weeks ago, when Emily asked me if I wanted to run the Ugly Sweater 5K with her and our friends, Anne and Jennifer, I'll admit I was hesitant mainly because the race was an untimed, fun run at National Harbor.


Jennifer, Emily, Anne and me

After a few epic race disasters at National Harbor (cough Hot Chocolate Run cough cough), I had pretty much sworn off all races there, and I wasn't too stoked about throwing down money on an untimed race entry.

But...

• I really like running races with friends.


• I'm not in my best running shape right now, so I'm OK not taking my running too seriously.


• I sort of loved the idea of a fun, holiday-themed raced.

So, I threw down the race entry fee, snagged myself an ugly sweater and hoped and prayed that parking and running at National Harbor wouldn't be a nightmare.


Ugly sweater selfie!

The four us showed up with plenty of time to spare, and parking actually wasn't a disaster. The day was starting on a great note!

National Harbor also had some nice indoor bathrooms for us to use before the race, and we had some extra time so we were able to snag a picture in front of the big, gorgeous Christmas tree.





As we lined up to wait for the race to start, I was getting such a kick out of all the ugly sweaters that people had. Those new NFL ugly sweaters were very prominent among the crowd.

The race started in waves, which was awesome to help maintain crowd levels on some of the more narrow parts of the course. My one complaint about the waves is that the race organizers let people with strollers or dogs and walkers in every single wave, rather than having them all start at the back of the pack.

So I started in the second wave and had to dodge a lot of walkers in the first quarter mile of the race because I caught up to them in a few minutes.


Guys let's talk about how bad my running form is here...


Something must be supppppper interesting on the ground

The course itself wasn't anything too exciting. It's just the typical loop they use around National Harbor for all races. Except, it was shorter than the typical loop. Turns out the race was only 2.6 miles not 3.1 (That's why I put 5K in quotation marks in the title.)


Oh look my head is sort of up in this one

As I waited for the rest of our group to finish, I heard multiple people walk by, look at their phones or Garmins and say the course ranged somewhere from 2.65 to 2.68 miles. So yea, definitely not a 5K.


24 minute "5K" can I say it's a new PR?

Though in the spirit of trying to enjoy the "fun run," I decided not let it bother me too much. (I know, this must be shocking to those of you who have been reading a while and have seen my rants about other races.)

Heck, in the spirit of really enjoying this race, I actually grabbed a post-race adult beverage.



I usually don't partake mainly because I don't like beer and that's all races offer, but hey this race had some Angry Orchard so I grabbed one.

Full disclosure though, I took about three sips and was like yea, I cannot be drinking this right now, and into the trash it went.

But overall despite the short course, I actually had a pretty fun time. Races with friends are always fun, and I'm sort of starting to get my running mojo back again after all my injuries. I actually looked at potential spring half marathons today!

And on that note, I'll end with our pre-race selfie.

Oh man I'm so not ready for my long weekend to end! Between all the holiday-themed activities I had going on and the extra doses of family time I got (my aunt from California and my parents are both in town!), I'm not quite ready to get back to the real world tomorrow.

I know I owe you two race recaps, and I promise those are coming, but I got to meet my newest baby cousin tonight, and that was kind of more exciting than both races put together.


Here's me and baby Heather.

And here's baby Heather meeting my dad for the first time:



Please note Heather's disposition in each picture. The running joke in my family is that my dad is the "Baby Whisperer." He can take any crying, screaming, raging baby and in minutes have them calm and happy. I swear, it's a magical gift, and he should charge people a lot of money for his services.

As you can see, I clearly did not inherit that gene from him.

Heather seemed to be pretty cool with my mom too.





So for those keeping score at home, that now totals five baby cousins I have within a 20 minute drive of my house. Pretty sure I couldn't be any more lucky.

Oh and in other news, I also got a much, much needed haircut today. I asked my stylist to take off about an inch and a half, and by the time she was done, I think she had chopped off a solid 3 inches. It's way shorter than what I expected/wanted.



My mom and cousins said it looked nice, and I mean it's just hair and it will grow, but I sort of think I look like a boy...

This weekend was full of two things: studying and a ton of holiday-themed activities.


Christmas has come to my apartment

My finals are coming up this week, and I'm more than a little nervous about them. It's been a long time since I've done the cram for finals thing, and this weekend has been a not-so-nice reminder of how much it still sucks six years post-college.


Studying...

But, I've tried to balance the suck of studying with lots of fun holiday activities -- including decorating gingerbread houses and running two holiday 5Ks.

Friday I got a last-minute invite to attend a blogger gingerbread house decorating event at Make Meaning in downtown Bethesda. Emily and I had originally been planning a low-key Friday night of movie watching since we had a race the next day, but we threw those plans out the window and opted for some crafty fun.

I don't know the best way to explain Make Meaning other than to say it's a giant place where you can let your creative side run wild. You can walk in by yourself or with a small group of friends and tackle any number of fun projects, like making soap or candles or ceramics, or you can rent out space for a group for a special project, as was our gingerbread decorating situation.

When Emily and I got there on Friday night there were about six long tables lined with gingerbread houses just begging to be decorated.



There was also a table overflowing with every kind of candy or gingerbread house decoration you could ever imagine.



We each grabbed our bowls and filled them to the brim with candy and got to work decorating. I wasn't sure exactly what direction I wanted to go with my house, so I grabbed a little bit of everything.



We had about two and half hours to decorate, which seems like a ton of time, but I couldn't believe how fast it flew by! Decorating gingerbread houses is apparently hard work!


Photo credit: jhphotography

At the end of the night, I was really happy with the way mine turned out!





Emily wasn't sure what she wanted to do with her house either, so she mixed and matched a little bit of everything.


Yes those are trees growing out of the roof!

And when we were all finished, the staff at Make Meaning nicely wrapped them up for us so we could attempt to transport them home without making a mess!



Luckily we decided to drive to Bethesda so we didn't have to attempt taking our works of art on the Metro. I can only imagine that would have been a disaster.

We got back to my house with our houses still mostly intact, and we got everything ready for the Ugly Sweater 5K the next morning. This was my outfit:



Since this post is already plenty long, I'll go ahead and save the recaps of the two 5Ks Emily and I ran this weekend for another day.