On Saturday Meghan and I headed to President Lincoln's Cottage to run the Freedom 5K.



This race is in its third year, but this summer was the first time I'd heard of it. I always get excited when I find a new race in the DC area to run. After living here for more than a decade, it's rare that I come across a new race to try.

President Lincoln's Cottage is a bit off the beaten path compared to other major DC sites, and I had never been there before, but getting to race on the grounds was really cool.

We had the perfect weather on race morning. It was cool and sunny, but not too hot.

The course started right near one of the guard's houses and looped the entire property. I sort of felt like I was running through rural wilderness. We passed lots of open green space, a driving range and even ran on some gravel roads through the woods.

It was a gorgeous course.

It was also a pretty challenging course. The entire first half of the race was downhill and the entire second half was uphill.

I ran the first half in 12 minutes. That is crazy fast for me, and I was thinking, "Man if I can just hold this pace for another 12 minutes I'll finish with a new PR."

Well, I did not hold that pace for the remainder of the race. I slowed down considerably in the second half. Those hills were no joke.

I ended up finishing the race in 28:something, which was good enough to make me the 14th female finisher overall (it was a pretty small race).



Overall, I love this race (despite the hills), and I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

When I'm on business trips for work in new cities, one of my favorite ways to see the town is by going on a run. So when I was in San Antonio last week for work, I was really excited that my hotel was kind of right downtown on the riverwalk.

I'd heard the riverwalk was really pretty, and when I took a stroll on my first night in town to find a place to eat dinner, I enjoyed some of the sights and sounds.

Plus I had a little friend join me for dinner.



However, on the walk back home, it was starting to get dark and the riverwalk was starting to creep me out. Part of it was pretty isolated and dark, and I noticed some questionable characters hanging around.

I made it back to the hotel without any incident, but it made me a little nervous about my run in the morning.

I ended up bumping my running start time back the following morning to wait until the sun was all the way up. I had a pretty unsettling feeling in my gut about running around San Antonio in the dark.

The run itself was fine. But I didn't listen to music and I was hyperaware of my surroundings. I only passed a handful of other runners the whole time, and I couldn't shake the eerie feeling of isolation and vulnerability.

That evening when my work stuff wrapped up, I walked the 10-15 minutes from my hotel to the Alamo to explore.



The Alamo closes pretty early, and I was heading back to the hotel around 5:45. I should note it was still broad daylight, and I was pretty much right downtown where there were lots of other people -- basically a place you'd feel pretty safe normally.

I was walking along minding my own business when a very aggressive, very shady character approached me and asked me if I had money for drugs. True story, didn't even pretend like he wanted the money for food or something. Points for honesty, I guess?

I was also catcalled at multiple by creepy old dudes in cars or on motorcycles. I have never in my life felt so harassed or unsafe in a city.

Perhaps needless to say, the next morning I did my run in the safety of the hotel gym. The treadmill is awful, but it seemed a lot better than the alternative.

Let's just say, I'm really happy to be home.

Oh hey friends. So it's been more than a month since my last post because I'm the worst blogger in all the land. I could make a million excuses for why this is, but really it's just that I had a lot going on and when I didn't have to be at the computer for work or school, I didn't want to be anywhere near one.

But I've had lots of fun stuff happen in the last month so I figured some quick updates might be in order:

1. Running.
I was on a pretty good streak there in July and early August, but alas school has started back up again and I'm struggling to even fit in a handful of runs per week. But! I did sign up for my very first post-grad school half marathon -- Rock N Roll DC in March. I'm super looking forward to having the time to legitimately train for a race again. I've missed it.

2. Travel.
After getting back from the beach, Meghan, Michelle and I spent a nice long weekend in Charleston, where we ate a lot of delicious food, spent lots of time at the beach and I tried stand-up paddleboarding for the first time ever and totally loved it.


Meghan, me, Michelle





I also did a couple of really nice runs when I was in Charleston. Once through the Citadel campus and some of the surrounding parks and neighborhoods and a five miler through downtown.


Citadel campus



I've got a work trip to San Antonio at the end of the month, which should be cool. I'm presenting at a conference during the day, but hope to sneak in some time to explore the city in the evenings since I've never been.

Meghan and I also booked our next international adventure. We're heading to Iceland in 2017!

3. Moving!
Three days after getting home from Charleston, I moved! It's safe to say I'm pretty in love with my new apartment and the fact that I can walk to literally everything (including work).


New keys!

4. Softball.
For the most part, my softball season has come to an end. I still have two tournaments left (one this Saturday, one the following), but honestly, this is the first year ever I'm kind of OK packing up my cleats for a while. I may have burnt out a tiny bit on the softball front with all my coaching and commissioner-ing.



In my alumni league, we made it all the way to the championship game a few weeks ago and lost on a walk-off run. It was a little heartbreaking, but I suppose there is always next year.



5. School.
Ugh yea, that's a thing that's happening again. At this point, it's just soul-sucking and I'm pretty over it. Talk about being burnt out. I'm taking my last two classes this semester -- one on HTML/CSS/Javascript, which will be super practical and useful, and then my Capstone course.

As much as I'm burnt out, the Capstone course seems cool. We basically spend the semester working as consultants for a company helping them answer some of their big business questions. My team is assigned to a company that works with veterans, so it's near and dear to my heart, plus one of their big questions is marketing related, which is my bread and butter.

6. Tailgate season.
Tailgate season is back, which means football is back! Whooo! I spent last Saturday in College Park with all of my favorite tailgate friends and then got to watch Maryland stomp Howard.



I've trimmed down my fantasy football leagues this year from three to two. That seems much more manageable. I'm so excited for Eagles football on Sunday. Curious to see how the Carson Wentz era starts. Don't let me down kid.

7. I turned 30!
And my friends put my face on a cake and got me a crown that I wore all night. It was a pretty awesome celebration and so far my 30s have been fabulous.





Ok, and I think that's all I've got. Maybe I'll try to do a better job of staying on top of the blogging stuff in the coming weeks. We'll see how things go with school/work.