I love books and could spend days curled up on the sofa doing nothing but reading (Is there I way I can make that profitable? Because if I could basically get paid to read all day that would be awesome).

I read a lot of books in 2015 -- or at least more than I expected to with grad school taking up a lot of my free time. On Goodreads, I set a goal to read 24 books this year, figuring with school, I'd average about 2 per month. Well I totally blew that goal out of the water. I read 54 books this year, which on average is more than a book per week.



I'm usually a fiction girl to the core, but this year I branched out into more nonfiction, and I've been on this weird history kick too lately, which is so different than my usual suspense/thriller norm.

So without further ado, here are my favorite fiction and nonfiction books of 2015. To qualify for this list, a book has to be something I've raved about to friends or recommended to my book club a bunch of times.

My Favorite Fiction Books



The Art of Fielding - Chad Harbach

I just finished this book a few days ago and it immediately became my favorite book of 2015. I read it on a recommendation from a friend of mine from my reporter days and just instantly fell in love with the story and the characters. As the name implies, this book is about a college baseball player and all the people who circle in and out of his life. It's 512 pages, and I tore through it in about two days over winter break.

The Martian -- Andy Weir

Until I read The Art of Fielding, this had been my favorite fiction book of 2015, I think in large part because it was so different than anything else I'd read. I loved the element of suspense throughout the book, mixed in with the nerdy science and math stuff. I still haven't seen the movie, part of me is afraid to because I'm not sure it will do the book justice.

China Dolls -- Lisa See

I picked this book up on a whim at the library right before my beach vacation and it instantly became the book I loved the most this summer. It's the story of three Asian American girls in San Francisco and how their lives change after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

My Favorite Nonfiction Books



The Boys in the Boat -- Daniel James Brown
I've lost count of the number of times I've recommended this book to people. Every time someone says they're looking for a good nonfiction read, this is what I suggest because it was definitely my favorite nonfiction book of 2015. This is what I wrote on Goodreads: I am not normally a nonfiction fan, but I loved this book. I'm not sure why, it didn't have griping dialogue and at times the plot moved a bit slowly, but there was something about the writing that I just couldn't stop reading.

Ghettoside -- Jill Leovy
If I didn't know this book was nonfiction, I would have thought it was a fiction story for how fast-paced and griping the narrative was. Overall the book looks at crime trends in the country, specifically what happens when black males and why so many of them are murdered. It's a must read.

American Sniper -- Chris Kyle
I loved this book. It's raw, it's real and yes, it's a little bit irreverent. If you're easily offended, you will hate it. My favorite parts where actually the sections written by Chris Kyle's wife.

Unbroken - Laura Hillenbrand
This was another one of those nonfiction books that I almost didn't believe was a true story. In part because some of the things that happened seemed so impossible to believe and in part because of the way the book was written. Still haven't seen the movie here either, but want to at some point.

If you're curious about what else I read this year, you can check out this very pretty summary that Goodreads put together.

And as always, I'm always open to book recommendations, so feel free to leave any in the comments that you think I should add to my list for 2016.

In keeping with my theme of having a productive and relaxing winter break, I kicked this morning off with a swim workout with my mom.

Unfortunately for me, when I woke up my shoulders/traps were killing me. I'm not sure if it was from finally mastering Crow in yoga on Monday night or from hauling the insanely heavy bags of donations to Salvation Army Monday afternoon.

I've never gotten DOMS from yoga before, but then again, I've never done balancing poses on my hands before either. So who knows what caused the soreness, all I knew was that it was going to make swimming extra special.

While every one else did a nice long warm-up, I did maybe a 150 or 200 and then spent the rest of the time stretching out so that I wouldn't drown during the main set.



Check out those sweet goggle eyes.

The main set was short -- only 1500 -- but about half way through, I was grabbing for the fins because my arms just couldn't take it anymore.

Swimming with fins always feels like cheating because you just glide through the water so much faster. I take a fraction of the strokes I normally take when I'm wearing fins.

To make it so I felt a little less like I was cheating, I alternated kick drills with regular strokes. So I'd do the first 25 kicking and then the second 25 swimming regularly. Rinse, repeat for the remainder of the set.

Even with the fins, my shoulders weren't loving me, so I was happy when we wrapped up.

 

In the relaxation category, my mom and I stopped for breakfast after swimming and I treated myself to a ginger peach tea. Ginger peach tea is my new jam. The coffee place by work has an amazing one and I'm slowly converting all my coworkers.

When we got home I curled up on the sofa with my second book of winter break.

This is where I'll be for a while now.

Because I didn't manage my vacation time very well in the beginning of the year, I found myself at the end of December having a whole bunch of hours I needed to use before the end of the calendar year.

As a result, my last day of work was Friday around 12:30 or so, and I won't be back in the office until January 5.



That is a glorious 17 days in a row of no work.

I plan to use some of the vacation time to be productive and some of it to just straight up be a lazy bum.



But it's a delicate balance. Too much productivity, and I won't feel like I had a vacation at all, but too much down time and I'll be antsy and bored and miserable.

Since I had lots of fun plans over the weekend, today was my first day to really put the productivity/relaxation balance into practice. Here's what today looked like:

Sleep in til 8 a.m. Alleluia what a treat being able to sleep in this late!

Do NOT immediately get up. Instead roll over in bed, grab book from nightstand, read for a solid 45 minutes.

Eventually get up, change into running clothes and go for a nice, easy 5K run.

Get home from the run around 10 a.m. and finish cleaning out closets for my annual "purge" of stuff to Salvation Army.



Could I have a few more pairs of running shoes in my closet?

This year's cleaning took about 3.5 hours on Sunday night and another couple of hours this morning. I ended up with five trash bags full of clothes, shoes and purses, plus a bunch of random household stuff I don't use anymore. (For example, five lamps. Don't ask me why I have five random lamps sitting around that I don't use. I couldn't tell you. Probably left over from a previous move).



Jam all donations into the car for drop off.



Since the Salvation Army isn't far from my cousin's house, make a pit stop to visit her and the twins. Experience the twins not being perfect angles for the first time ever (Ok this is perhaps a slight exaggeration, I did see them once bite each other, but they really did not want to nap today). Develop new found respect for my cousin after watching her wrangle two really wound up kiddos and eventually get them both to sleep about two hours after they went down for naps initially.

Come back home and head to Monday night yoga. Do Crow for the first time ever without falling flat on my face! Consider this a major win and smile stupidly like a fool through the rest of class.

Contemplate starting to pack for PA tonight, but decide to just leave it until the morning and curl up with a (highly recommended by a friend) movie instead.



Overall, I call this a success on the productivity/relaxation front.

Tomorrow I head home to PA. I imagine the only productive thing that will happen is the drive.

Every year, I try to make sure I get in at least one run past the Bishop's House in DC. It's my own personal version of a holiday lights run.



This one house gets so decked out with Christmas decorations and lights, it draws all kinds of crowds as people come check out the lights.

I was planning to do my run past the Bishop's House on Monday evening, but the forecast called for rain, so I scooted out the door a little earlier than planned, hoping that because the skies were overcast, the lights would come on earlier than normal.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.



When I ran by, it was too bright outside for the lights to be on, but I still got to scope out some of the crazy decorations. (I should note, I edited all the pictures to make them brighter for this post. It definitely wasn't that light outside when I did this run).



I ended up doing about a three mile run and just when I got back home it started pouring. It made me glad that I squeezed the run in earlier than planned even though I didn't get to see the house all lit up. I guess I'll have to try to swing by on another night time run to see the lights.

I used to do nice little monthly wrap-up posts where I'd recap the books I'd read that month. When I was looking back through my archive recently, I realized I hadn't put up a book post since my vacation in July. Such a fail.



Granted, my reading levels took a major nose-dive once grad school started up again in August, but I definitely did some reading, and zero updating on it.

I figured since it's the end of the calendar year and lots of people are doing book reviews, I'd catch you up on the books I've read this fall (in sort of chronological order).

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl -- Jesse Andrews

I bought this while I was on vacation at the beach but didn't get around to reading until several weeks later. A coworker had recommended it, and after another friend told me the movie made him sob, I figured I had to read it. It definitely didn't disappoint. In fact there were times it was laugh out loud funny, which is really weird considering the book is about a girl dying from cancer.

Modern Romance -- Aziz Ansari

I read this in like a day and a half while chilling at the pool. It was a good pool read, but I didn't think there was anything too groundbreaking in the research. A lot of it had been pop psych stuff I'd read elsewhere. This might have been eye-opening to my mom, but if you've dated in the 21st century, you'll likely just go, "Duh."

In the Unlikely Event -- Judy Blume

This was a book club book, and most of my book club really loved it. I thought it was good, but a little too long. There were parts that I didn't think were necessary and that the last bits of the story weren't totally necessary.

The Martian -- Andy Weir

One of the best books I've read this year. Perfect mix of nerdy science and math stuff with OMG will he survive stuff.

Why Not Me -- Mindy Kaling


I love Mindy. If you love her too, read this book.

S Street Rising: Crack, Murder and Redemption in DC - Ruben Castanenda
Another book club read, picked basically because this guy was/is a Post reporter and it takes place in our backyard. It's crazy to think how bad some of the neighborhoods in this book were back in the day (or not even that long ago really) compared to what they are like now. The biggest complaint our book club had dealt with the way women were portrayed in the book.

Wild - Cheryl Strayed
I started this book about four times before I was finally able to finish it. I'm glad I stuck it out though. It was a good read after the depressing start.

The Survivor -- Vince Flynn/Kyle Mills
I loved the Mitch Rapp books when Vince Flynn used to write them. I was curious to see how another author continued that character. I liked this book a lot and flew through it like I used to do with the old Flynn books. There were plot points I didn't love that I won't spoil here, but overall, I liked it, and I guess I'd keep reading books with this character.

The Girl in the Green Raincoat -- Laura Lippman
I was excited to see Laura Lippman was writing Tess books again, but I didn't love this one as much as I loved others mainly because Tess was on bed rest and couldn't move off her sofa so it just didn't have the excitement of some of the other books.

Terminal City -- Linda Fairstein
If you like Law and Order SVU, you will like Linda Fairstein's books. They are about an NYC sex crimes unit. You don't have to read them in order, but it helps a lot if you do because the characters are the same in each book, and their stories develop a little more in each book. This was book #16. Flew through it in two days. I basically wish I could be best friends Coop, Chapman and Mercer in real life.

So that's basically what I've been reading during the semester. Now that school is over until January, and I have a little bit more free time on my hands, I imagine I'll start crushing books that have been laying around my apartment or sitting on my Kindle. I'm also working on my list of books to read in 2016, so if you've got recommendations, send them my way!

Every week at the beginning of yoga class, the instructor asks us to set an intention for the next hour of practice. Usually my mind draws a blank, and I feel all this pressure to come up with some sort of good and meaningful intention. I have to think really hard and then wind up with something like "Be less stressed."



That's generic and so broad, I'm not even sure what I mean by it half the time, but it's what I go with because I don't have anything better.

But this week, when the instructor asked us to set an intention, the phrase "What will be, will be" immediately leapt into my mind. I'm not sure what exactly triggered it, but lately I have been trying to be more present in the current moment rather than worrying so much about what I've got going on the next day or the next week or the next month.

"What will be will be," or the more religious "Let go and let God" that I heard frequently in my many years of Catholic school, are not easy things for me to actually put into practice.

I'm such a Type A planner that just being present actually takes quite a bit of mental work on my part. As weird as it might sound, planning and thinking about the future are my ways of feeling in control of a situation. In my mind, I link just being present with being unprepared, and even though I know they aren't the same thing, that puts me really on edge.

But given how crazy this time of year can be, I'm trying to spend more time just being in the moment and appreciating what's going on around me now and not worrying so much about what tomorrow holds. I guess somewhere my subconscious mind realized that and threw "What will be, will be" into my mind at just the right time in yoga this week.

I'm sure all this being present stuff is going to be a huge work in progress for me, and I'll probably still have moments where I call up my best friend and the first thing I say when she answers is, "PANIC!" (True story, that happened Sunday night...she thought I said, "Can it!" and was very confused at first ha!)

But yes, so being present is a thing I'm working on. If this were the New Year, I'd say it was a resolution of sorts, but we've still got some of 2015 left, so this is just a thing I'm working on so I can worry less and appreciate life more.

Yesterday I ran the Jingle All the Way 5K with a bunch of the girls from my book club.



Since our book club, affectionally know as the Yoga Pants Book Club, is largely made up of a bunch of runners with a reading problem, we decided it would be fun for us to celebrate the holidays with a 5K followed by brunch.

I've done the Jingle All the Way race a bunch of other years, but I think this year was definitely the year that graced me with the best weather. It was brisk, but not freezing, and I actually started to get a little too warm in my Under Armour around mile 2.5.



I wasn't sure what to expect time-wise going into the race. After being sick for two weeks and then having my lungs burn on every run since, I knew my cardio endurance wasn't at its highest level ever. I had no plans to PR and really just wanted to go out and have fun.

And that's pretty much exactly what I did.

I really like this course because it takes you right past the Capitol Building and we got a nice view of the Capitol Christmas tree. Some people stopped to take pictures in front of it, but I had a feeling if I stopped, I wouldn't be all that motivated to start running again.

I crossed the finish line in 27:51 (better than anticipated!) and quickly found Katie (who PR'd!) and Megan (who also ran wicked fast) and we waited for the rest of our group to finish.



I also got a nice surprise from my friend's parents who showed up to watch the race!



Thanks for coming out Tina and Fred!

After everyone finished, we made a coffee stop for some warm beverages, and then proceeded to Erin's place for brunch. Definitely not a bad way to start a Sunday morning.

I was doing so good on the blogging front a few weeks ago. Three posts in one week! Then I got sick and did nothing but sit on my sofa and blow my nose a bunch. That doesn't make for very exciting blog material.



But I'm back, and I think I'm maybe finally over my sinus infection/head cold/plague.

I've been hanging out in PA all week for Thanksgiving, and it's been lovely. In addition to being nice and relaxing, I've also finally felt OK enough to do some workouts.

Let me tell you, after doing nothing but yoga for two weeks, your cardiovascular endurance will go to crap.

I went to swim with my mom on Wednesday morning and was fairly certain I was going to drown by the time we finished our workout. And we only did a 1,500 yards work set.

Then on Thanksgiving I did my own version of a turkey trot because apparently Allentown doesn't believe in holding an actual 5K on Thanksgiving morning (this irks me every year). It's perhaps for the best I wasn't racing though because OMG my lungs were on fire during my run.

I went slooooow, and I got a nice reminder of what happens when you don't run for two straight weeks. But the weather here has been amazing this year, so I almost didn't mind how slow I was going and how pathetic my endurance was.

I went for another run today, that largely turned into a healthy mix of walking and running just for an excuse to be outside and soak up the sunshine. I will take 63 degree weather at the end of November any day.

Especially when you compare it to the weather we had in PA last year at Thanksgiving:



Snow in November is never cool.

So I think I'm finally healthy enough to get back on the workout wagon. I'm planning to swim with my mom again tomorrow morning, and maybe squeeze in another run on Sunday (though it's supposed to be a lot colder then). Here's hoping this was my one major sickness for the season, and I can power through the rest of cold and flu season unharmed.

This is a question I've been pondering a lot this week since I have been sick and have had zero desire to do anything but curl up on the sofa and blow my nose a million times.



Yet all over the Internet, in running magazines, blogs, etc, when people ask if you can work out while sick, the answer is always as long as your symptoms are above the chest/neck you're good to go and can work out if you want.

But I don't understand how someone can work out when their throat is on fire or their head is pounding. Running would just make that hurt more. So I've been doing zero workouts this week.

I got sick Tuesday night and after taking an exam Wednesday morning, I spent the rest of my day off curled up on the sofa with Netflix. (Side note: Why do I always get sick on government holidays?)

Since it was Veterans Day, it seemed only appropriate that I indulge in military movies. So I watched We Were Soldiers (for the first time) and Top Gun (for about the 500th). Netflix has started to recognize my love of Top Gun.



At this point I could probably recite the entire movie. I should be embarrassed by this, but I'm totally not. I got my love of Top Gun from my dad, who was in the Navy, and used to watch it all the time because it was always on TV. Check out these sweet old school photos of him my mom sent me.



Anyway, back to my sickness. I struggled into the office on Thursday, but threw in the towel and went to the doc this morning. Unfortunately I do not have strep throat, which means no antibiotics for me. Just good ol' rest and liquids and OTC decongestants.

Which I guess brings me back to my main question, how do people work out when they feel like this? All my symptoms are above the neck, but the thought of going for a run or even doing some easy yoga seems awful right now.

So I guess until I feel better, you will find me planted on the sofa.

Yoga brain...it's definitely a thing. Megan and I first realized it last week when we were in the locker room after class and could barely hold a conversation because we couldn't complete sentences. That's how zenned out we were.



I've pretty much decided yoga brain is the best thing ever. Probably because it's the only time my normally very active mind is calm and quiet.

The sense of calm after yoga means that there aren't a million thoughts and worries flying back and forth in my brain. I'm temporarily able to forget about my never-ending to-do list and all my typical worries and anxieties just fade into the background for a few hours.

I'm normally a pretty anxious person. I stress and worry about weird stuff. Not to the point where it's debilitating or anything like that, just in the sense that my mind is always going a mile a minute, and it's really, really hard for me to calm it down sometimes.

This new Monday night yoga routine that I've started has really helped with that. It's crazy to me that I can walk into the studio with a million things on my mind and walk out an hour later without a care in the world. I'm calm and at peace, and it's a pretty incredible feeling.

I've always used running as my therapy in the sense that when I'm on a run, I can turn a problem over and over in my mind and come up with solutions. I can look at whatever is on my mind from different angles and find the best way to approach it.

Running is good for my soul in that way, but yoga offers something different. Yoga offers me the chance to give my mind a rest from constant problem solving. It allows me the chance to just be present and not worry.

And right now, with everything I've got going on in my life trying to balance work and school and social commitments, I need that.

This morning I ran the most fun race I've done in a long time - the Across the Bay 10K.



The race course starts on Maryland's Western Shore and then you run 4.35 miles across the Bay Bridge and finish on the Eastern Shore. The race was so cool because normally the only way to get across the Bay Bridge is to drive. Usually in some pretty crappy traffic (especially in the summer on the way to the beach). And driving across the bridge is a little bit terrifying.



But running across the bridge was one of the coolest things ever.

The weather was perfect and we got to watch the sunrise as we were starting the race. I started in the second wave, which took off at 7:10 a.m. -- which meant my morning started super early. Because the race allows so many people (I think 25,000), runners need to take shuttles to the start that are spaced based on when your wave starts. Waves started every 10 minutes between 7 a.m. and 9:20 a.m.

I parked at the Naval Academy football stadium in Annapolis and had to be on my shuttle by 6:20 a.m. The shuttle system worked well, and I got to the start line with plenty of time to hit the bathroom, snap some pictures and get ready to go.

Once the race started, you pretty much head straight out to the bridge. It was kind of surreal running on a major highway that is normally closed to pedestrians.



Being that this was a bridge race, we pretty much started climbing right away too. When you're driving the bridge, you know you're going up a little bit, but when you're running, you realize just how much climbing you do. The first 2+ miles were basically all uphill. But it was a gentle climb, and I actually didn't mind it too much.



The views from the bridge as we climbed higher and higher were truly majestic. You don't get to enjoy them when you're driving across the bay because you're too busy worried about traffic, but running across, you can soak in how pretty the view really is.



As we crested the bridge and started our descent down the other side, my left hip and knee started acting up. Running downhill for long periods of time can actually really mess with my form, and I could tell that things were a little out of whack. So I walked for a little bit to loosen things up.

It's funny that I didn't feel the need to walk once on the climb up the hill, but it was the downhill that I needed to stop -- the part of the race where most people were happy to coast.



When you step off the bridge on the Eastern Shore, you still have about 1.5 miles to go, which I actually didn't love. I almost wish the course could have been flipped and you ran the 1.5 miles to get to the bridge and then cross the finish line sooner after getting off the bridge. The bridge is the most exciting part of the race, and once I finished crossing it, I was like OK, that was fun, now I want to be done.

But I slogged on and finished the last bit of the race, crossing the finish line in 58:03. Not too shabby for a race the day after Maryland homecoming (aka a long day of tailgating and not eating nearly enough food to fuel for a race...oops).

After crossing the finish line, I grabbed my shirt and medal. I am pretty in love with both. Seriously great race swag.



Then I went to find the shuttles to take me back to the Western Shore. I didn't stick around for any of the post-race party because I had to get back home for my cousin's baby shower so I was super pumped to see there was no line and I was able to get on a shuttle right away. About 25-30 minutes later, we were back at Navy's stadium, and I was ready to head home.

I have to really hand it to the race directors for putting on an amazing race. With all the logistics for a race with that many people, where no one can drive to the start or finish, to run a stretch of road that is normally closed to pedestrians, I was shocked everything ran so, so smoothly.

This was truly an awesome race, and I'm so glad I did it. If you're looking for a fun race to do something you don't normally get to do, I can't recommend this one enough.

Yesterday afternoon, Megan asked me if I wanted to catch a yoga class with her. I haven't set a foot in a yoga studio in years. I mean years and years.



I don't know why. I used to teach yoga. I know how awesome it can be both mentally and physically, but I guess I was just picking other workouts instead.

So last night, I knew my hour on the mat was probably going to be pretty humbling. A lot of my flexibility was gone. My tight runner legs were really evident from pretty much minute one. And all those planks and down dogs made my shoulders tremble.

But man it was a good class.

I left feeling so zen and calm. It was the probably the first time in months that I didn't feel little pinpricks of stress attacking my brain. I told Megan I had some serious "yoga brain" going on. And that calm and centered feeling lasted for hours.

Megan and I are probably going to make Monday night yoga our new thing now that neither of us are training for any long distance events. It will be nice way to start the week -- something a little less rigorous than my normal crazy routine.

 

 

So this afternoon, I was out for a nice leisurely run. It was one of those runs where I wasn't really focused on the running and was more pounding the pavement to do some problem solving. Nothing shakes new ideas loose like a few easy miles.


Plus I was trying out this new pair of Brooks that I got sent to test. Pretty huh?

So I was off in la-la-land in my head, on total auto-pilot on one of my regular 3.5 mile loops, when all of a sudden, I run into a police barricade, blocking off the way I needed to go.

In my head, I thought, well that's kind of annoying, but whatever, diverting around closed roads is nothing new when you run in DC. (Hello, motorcades). So I turn down a side street figuring I'll cut up the next block.

Turns out that's blocked off too, and at this corner there were way more cops (and maybe some military folks, they definitely looked to be in military uniforms and not police uniforms, but I didn't have my contacts in, so couldn't totally be sure).

I stopped to ask one of the cops if I could cut up to the main street. He looked at me like I had five heads, but nicely said no and told me to keep going down the block.

I did eventually, but not before I took a good long, half-blind look up the street (really wishing I had my contacts in at this point) and saw a couple of police vehicles. At this point, I was thinking, oh man there's totally a gas leak. That's not good, better get a move on.

Well ya'll turns out, it wasn't a gas leak. When I got home and did some Googling, I found out my neighborhood beer store had been robbed earlier this morning and the cops killed one of the robbers during a shoot-out. So, yea...that's why the roads were all closed. The crazy thing is, I had seen this headline earlier in the morning, but didn't pay attention to where it had happened, so I was basically clueless it wasn't far from my house.

Also, let's just say I'm really, really glad I didn't do my run this morning like I normally do because uh, was definitely thinking about running at like 9 a.m., which would have put me right near that beer store when this was all going down.

So yep, that's my Monday, and that's crazy, and I'm going to stop writing now and come back another day this week with something more cheerful I hope.

Oh man guys, the day two post-race delayed onset muscle soreness is the worst. I rolled out of bed this morning and nearly fell over. My quads, IT bands and calves pretty much hate me.

But, they hate me because I had an unexpectedly awesome race in Baltimore over the weekend.



I don't know where this time came from. Baltimore is an extremely hilly course, and I didn't come into the race trained to run this hard. My plan all along had been to train to run the race for fun because with grad school demands this semester, I knew I wasn't going to have the time to dedicate to super long midweek workouts.

Even though my plan was to just go out and have fun, I still was extremely nervous on race morning. The weather was crisp, but the sun was shining and I was having a hard time deciding what to wear. I eventually opted for my long-sleeve top since it was supposed to be breezy. I spent much of the first 3 miles regretting that decision since I was basically melting.


But luckily for me, somewhere during the race it actually go colder, and I was glad to have the long-sleeves.

Since I've run this race so many times now, I'm really familiar with the course and know when to expect long uphill slogs. In my head, I had a plan to run the first three miles and reassess how I was feeling when I got to the first aid station after the marathon and half-marathon courses merge right around that point.

I was feeling surprisingly good and just kept trucking along, almost laughing to myself at the times I was seeing on my Garmin.

Somewhere in this section of the course, I spotted a friend I used to work with at the newspaper at UMD. Thanks for being out there cheering Scott! It's always fun to see random people along the course!

My next major mental milestone was to get to Lake Montebello, which was somewhere near the 7 mile mark. I knew once I got here, I'd have at least a mile of flat running as a reprieve from the hills. Until then, my plan was to keep my feet moving. Slow and steady on the uphills and then use the downhills to make up some time lost on the climbs.

I tried hard not to lose time through the aid stations, though there were times when I did stop to walk for a few seconds to ensure the Gatorade went in my mouth and not down the front of my shirt. Overall, the stations were supremely well-organized and I never got stuck in a back log.

I threw back my first Gu somewhere near mile 4.75.

When we finally reached the lake, I was so excited to have some flat course, but maybe my legs appreciated the variety of inclines because about half way around the lake my left knee and hip started majorly revolting. I had to slow down a bit to try to get things under control, and mentally bribed myself to keep running until the next aid station, which was just around the bend.

I made it, and the quick walk I took there made a world of difference, and my knee and hip settled down and didn't really bother me the rest of the race.

The climb from mile 8 to 9 is pretty aggressive, but I just kept trucking on. I knocked back my last Gu just past mile 9.

The last four miles of the race are some of my favorite because there are tons and tons of spectators out and about blasting music, dancing in the streets in costumes, handing out gummy bears and lots and lots of Natty Boh.

Every time I looked down at my Garmin, I couldn't believe there was a chance I could still go sub-two. I thought the hills on the course would basically destroy me, but I was feeling good. Mile 10 is almost all downhill, so I knew I could make up some time there too, and I just let myself coast.

But maybe I coasted a little too hard because when I hit more uphills in mile 11 I was struggling. I knew sub-two was still do-able, but I needed to keep a strong pace, and I was fading fast. Knowing that mile 12 was also all mainly downhill, I figured I'd be OK, but mile 11 just killed me.



When I hit mile 12, I tried to accelerate a tiny bit to take advantage of the downhills, but I just couldn't quite pick up the pace enough. As I was cruising past Camden Yards, I knew it would be close. I kicked hard to the finish line, but probably didn't start my kick soon enough.

But I left everything I had out on that course. For coming into a race with truly just the bare minimum of training, I'm honestly shocked I was able to pull off such a fast time. Sure it would have been awesome to go sub-two on an extremely tough course, but even though I didn't, I'm still thrilled with my time.

I'm also really proud of how mentally tough I stayed during this race. There were plenty of times when things were sore or my legs were tired or I was staring up at another hill and I could have thrown in the towel, but I never did, and that's a minor victory too because that's not always easy for me.



Once I crossed the finish line, I hobbled over to get my medal, and heard someone call my name. It was one of my blog readers who recognized me in the crowd. He had also finished the half and was using it as an easy run before tackling the Marine Corps Marathon this weekend! Hope you're recovering better than I am and that you have a great race next week!

I made the long and slow hobble back to where my dad was spectating, and we waited together for my mom to finish. I'm glad she wore neon so she was easy to spot in the crowd!



I also saw another one of my college newspaper friends finish his very first marathon! Congrats Jeff! You rock!



Overall it was a great day of racing. I had a great time as always. I can't recommend the Baltimore Running Festival enough. It was my first marathon back in 2006 and I've come back again and again to do the half because this city just puts on an amazing race.

After what seems like weeks of grad school stress, I finally finished my midterms yesterday morning. I feel really good about one of them and only so-so about the other. I'm also beyond stressed about a group project that is going epically badly, but that's another story for another time.

Since yesterday was a holiday and a picture-perfect day in DC, I decided I needed a break from school stress and treated myself to a trip to the National Zoo to see my elephant friends.



The elephants are definitely my favorite animals at the Zoo. The pandas may be the media darlings, but I just love the big, happy elephants.



I got to the Zoo in the late afternoon and hung out with the elephants for a solid half hour before wandering around the rest of the Zoo.

I also spent some time visiting the big cats, though they were all pretty much asleep, and the sloth bear. Rusty the Red Panda was sadly not out and about when I was there.

Just popping in to say it's midterm season, and school stress is kicking my butt. I've largely been prioritizing studying over basically everything else. My Friday night was analyzing a case study, making flashcards, and finishing up a third assignment.



Then yesterday, I had to turn down a free ticket five rows from the field to the Eagles vs Redskins game for school again. Though, after the train wreck that was the Eagles implosion in that game, it might have been better that I was watching from my sofa.



Football season has been rough so far. Maryland is just an utter embarrassment and Chip Kelley's Eagles aren't looking so hot either. Someone wake me when it's basketball season.

Baltimore Half training has still be going pretty well, though I did skip this weekend's long run because of all the rain. Something about running ten miles in that just didn't seem appealing. I tried to convince myself to do it, but decided studying was a better use of my time.



I did do a delightful five miles this morning though. The weather was perfect, and after several of my last runs feeling so seemingly tough, this run felt so easy. Maybe it had something to do with the lack of humidity, but even the hills felt easy. I already miss gorgeous warm summer weather, but this nice fall weather is kind of perfect for running.

That's all I've got for today. I'm not sure how much time I'll have for blogging over the next week or so, but I promise to check back in again as soon as I can!

The Pope is in DC this week, and it's been kind of awesome to see his widespread appeal to way, way more than just the Catholic population. I mean even Snapchat has a Pope filter...



Even though I spent 13 years in Catholic school, I've mainly avoided the mayhem that is any of the Pope events.
Throwback Catholic school uniform photo

I wasn't lucky enough to snag one of my office's tickets to the White House event yesterday, so I've been following along on the Interwebz, but staying away from the crowds.

The government actually told federal employees to work from home this week if possible to alleviate some of the traffic issues, and I was happy to oblige.

So I've been hanging out at home all week, getting lots of work done and enjoying my runs in some picture perfect fall weather. Baltimore half training is going well. My times aren't record breaking (in fact, I think I'll end up running one of my slower halves), but the runs have been enjoyable.

I'm still not using my Garmin on any of my mid-week shorter runs, but I have added a new toy to my running arsenal.



This is the MilestonePod. As you can see, it's a small pod that you wear on your shoe that let's you track the mileage you put on your sneakers. It also pairs with an app that lets you see more data on your phone.



I especially like this chart that tells me I heel strike 100% of the time on my runs. Can't say that's totally surprising.



I've realized you need to take the time data with a grain of salt though, since it's not like a running watch where you can pause it at a stoplight. I was looking at the average pace from my most recent run and was like oh man I moved so slowly. Then I looked at some of the charts and saw for a bit times plunging down into the 16 min/mile range and realized that duh, at traffic lights, it's just going to seem like I'm moving ridiculously slowly.  



But the thing I really love about the MilestonePod is that it easily lets you track the mileage you put on a pair of shoes. When you get a new pair, you updated your settings in the app, and the pod begins counting the miles on the new shoes. Since I'm notoriously bad at keeping track of how long I've had my shoes, this is a super easy way to pay attention to the mileage on them.

MilestonePod was sent to me to test out. All opinions are my own.