Remember to Celebrate

For many of us, our season is over. This past weekend marked my last official race of the season and it left me feeling a little sad. Sad but proud because I had ONE running related goal this year and I crushed it: NO RUNNING RELATED INJURIES.

That’s right. I had an entire training year including the Boston marathon, four events over 24 hours, six over 12 hours, 6 over 50 miles and all with a social life and a full time job. I certainly don’t attribute this success to me but rather those who I have surrounded myself with who are more experienced than I am. I have a fantastic relationship with my coach and most importantly, I trust him entirely. He has lead me through a season of awesome and we are meeting next week to put the wheels in motion for next year.

I think most runners are Type A which means we reach our goals and immediately look towards what is next – how we can do it better – what we would change. It is important that we take a moment when we hang up our racing bibs at the end of the year to reflect on how we got here, the miles we put in and celebrate our efforts along the way.

I am proud of myself – not that I smashed any huge goals this year, but that I was able to listen to my body. I am proud of that and I feel like taking a year off of being hyper competitive was good for me. I trained a lot by myself and when I was training with others, it was more of a social, no pressure affair than anything else. This will change for me next year, but I am so happy I did a year of playing. In that playing, I learned how to celebrate my races and unlearned beating myself up for any perceived failures.

Some of my best moments include the Janji after party at the Boston marathon in April with my new ambassador friends, tearing up the dance floor.


Or deciding with my team mates whether we would have a parking lot beer or fall asleep immediately after our 48 hour adventure race in Pennsylvania (sleep won) and then spent the next day white water rafting and processing the hardest adventure race we had ever done.
Or the final gala at Transrockies where I had an amazing conversation with Kara Goucher and drank ginger vodkas with the mountain squad.

I learned how to celebrate and truly enjoy everything running had to offer this year and to me, that means I accomplished what I set out for this year. I am so grateful for the running community and the support and challenge that each of you bring to me.

Remember to take a moment before rushing into the next thing to remember why we do this and raise a glass to a year well raced.

Congratulations to you all.