Making goals and actually accomplishing them. An unheard of concept.

I am one of those people who is always thinking of new goals for myself and trying to push myself further each day. With that being said, for the past couple of years, that has been focused a lot on my running. Running is something that I HATED in high school, but somehow found a love for it in my sophomore year of college. I actually began running when I was in Ghana for a month, and then continued to run while I was in Australia for 6 months. Every day that I ran I was just blown away by the beauty around me, so I would run farther to see what else there was. Eventually I stopped feeling like I was going to die from throwing up my lungs, and I really have become a runner. A really committed runner in fact.

Cool shadow that makes me look like a giant.

Since having Mila and spending so much time at home, I have been able to run daily while bringing her along for the ride. She truly has made me such a stronger runner, which I am so grateful for, and she loves every minute of it. (If you have never tried running while pushing a child in a stroller, I strongly suggest you do it. Your times will get faster and you will be so strong. Borrow a friend's kid if you have to.)

Last year, I accomplished two of the goals I had set for myself. One was to run a half marathon in 2012, which I completed in the beginning of December just 7 months after Mila was born. The other was to place in a race.....any race. This was more of a life goal, but I was pleasantly surprised when I got 2nd place for my age group in a 5k that I ran. Was not expecting it, but I was super proud of myself. And it was my personal record at 23:41.

This year my goals are to run a full marathon (26.2 miles if you didn't know) and to run at least 2 local races, either 5k or 10k. I am also trying to run an average of 100 miles a month, for a yearly total of 1200. This may be a stretch, but so far I have kept up with it solets see what the rest of the year brings. Here's to making goals and getting them done!!

Hollywood, FL half marathon

5th place and 2nd place^^^ this will probably never
happen again so we really played up the moment.