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Farewell, 2013!

You guys, seriously, can you even believe that tomorrow is New Year's Eve? I sure the heck can't! 

Someone asked me what the date was today and I said "I think, like, the 27th". What?! 

This year has simultaneously flown by but also, wow, so much has happened. I just looked over the past year of blogs and Facebook and iPhone pictures and there was just so much good stuff, and one super older toddler! I love to look back at the fun we had and the adventures that are to come, so I figured I would break it up into two posts with these two days left (!!).

I give to you, my year in review, 2013 edition.

In February I ran my first half marathon, then followed up two months later with my second half marathon and then just said YOLO and ran my first full marathon in October. I put about 700 miles on my running shoes in 2013 and really, truly feel like a runner. Running is not something that I want to do or have to do, it is something that I do. Period. And until I am unable to take another step, it will always be a part of me. I was able to combine my love of running and my love of volunteering and joined Back on My Feet, where I have had the opportunity to meet some really great people and watch some extraordinary transformations in the folks that I run with. It looks like running and I had a pretty great year together!

In March I made the super scary decision to leave an organization that I love to pursue a higher level position elsewhere, which ended up being a six month lesson in the grass always being greener. Granted, it was what I needed to grow in my career as there was nowhere else for me to go at my old organization, but I really, really missed where I was and had a really hard time adjusting. As luck would have it, my old organization had a  major growth spurt and I was able to return into a management position under a boss that I truly look up to and love, love, love working for. There is no way that this could have turned out any better and I thank my lucky stars for aligning the way that the did every day. Is it hard work? Absolutely, but I couldn't be happier to work my tail off anywhere else.

Because I had started a new job, however, I was unable to take Marathon Monday off as I had every year before, but since Matty was taking the year of from running it I was able to deal with watching it at my desk and looking forward to 2014. I would likely have been down near the finish line on Boylston Street with Matty and Maddie and all of our friends, just as we were last year and the year before watching Matty cross the finish line. Since I was stuck at work, Matty decided to take the kiddo, our nanny and her boyfriend (now fiance!) outside the city where his running team had a post set up to cheer on their runners. This decision likely saved their lives and it will never stop making my breath catch in my throat to think of what would have happened had things been any different. Two bombs ripped through my city, two men created days of terror and millions of people watched as our lives as Bostonians and runners were forever changed. Today is the first day of the 2014 Marathon training plans for thousands of people and I lace my running shoes up with them in solidarity, love and grief for all whose lives forever changed that day.

In May I turned 31 with as much grace as possible, including the beginning of a relationship with eye cream, you know, as a preventative measure. We spent some time in San Diego right before so I got to celebrate more than once and then had a PR in my second half marathon with my husband by my side just days later. All in all, a pretty fantastic way to sail even farther away from my twenties.  

Over the summer we really got into our groove as a family of three with a very mobile little human. We spent almost every weekend at the beach, had some pretty successful vacation time (to San Diego, on the Vineyard, on Cape Cod as much as humanly possible) and started gearing up for Matty to return to school and finish up his BA at Boston University this fall. We tried to knuckle down as much as possible once summer ended and maintained a pretty great balance of work, school, running, family and friends, which continued (for the most part) through the holidays. \

And now, here we are, a day away from the end of another year.

This year has made me mature in totally new ways with my career and the goal to smarten up our budget and become homeowners has made me use my brain in a whole different way. I have proven to myself that I can indeed run 26.2 miles and still want to run another marathon. I have grown in my role as a mother of a toddler and learned a lot about patience while feeling absolutely grateful to have a wonderful co-parent by my side through it all. I have spent some wonderful time with the amazing friends that we have, watching them get married, move, graduate, get engaged and do all the awesome things that they do.

2013, you have been one heck of a year; I cannot wait to see what life has in store for us in the next 365 days!

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