running = more room for birthday cake.

This quote has been sitting in my inbox and I had to laugh when I reopened it to post it and realized it's from my new celeb crush...sigh...

"That's the thing about running: your greatest runs are rarely measured by racing success. They are moments in time when running allows you to see how wonderful life is." - Kara Goucher

Birthdays (well....just mine really...), especially those which coincide with the anniversary of this blog and my relationship with running, make me particularly nostalgic, and as always, I do appreciate the chance to step back and reflect. I think about all the highs (even the lows, which I can still appreciate) I've felt this past year connected to running. I think about the top-of-the-world-and-how-the-heck-did-I-get-here?! feeling of completing TWO half-marathons, the incredible sense of gratitude running the middle of the night as part of Hope Express (and let's be honest...that entire experience, being surrounded by so many incredible people and amazing runners!), runs in the dark at night with Lani, running in the early morning with Lindsay, running (because yes...again..it DID happen) a sliver of the NYC Marathon with Sindy....runs in the early morning to avoid the heat and runs in the peak of the day to avoid the coldest cold. Runs through PA, NY, at the boardwalk along the beach, in New Orleans, through Montreal, in DC, in Vegas (okay okay...a treadmill in Vegas. I'm not THAT hardcore), literally ACROSS Central Pennsylvania, through the paths at the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, around Villanova (big shoutout of love to the "first race!"), weaving through State College and Penn State....

May this next year be filled with so many more wonderful memories made running with friends, FAMILY (that's right...it's going to happen!!!), and I'm proud to even say, sometimes all by myself!