HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Wow! I can't believe it's already here! 2018 has brought with it a lot of changes, but with that it has also taught me to have patience, love and self-confidence. When I was a kid I could never seem to picture myself older than 20. I sure as heck had no idea where I’d be or the type of challenges and blessings that Iife would bring. The kid me would have surely thought the adult me is 100% certifiably crazy for enjoying running.

Like everyone else, I have worked hard for everything I’ve accomplished, but at times I’m also a big believer that we have no choice but to Forrest Gump our way through life-- or for a more modern twist, Birdbox our way through it, tightly grabbing on to the belief that if we try our hardest something has to go right. I couldn’t be more thankful for 2018. There were setbacks and blessings, and sometimes what I thought were setbacks were really blessings in disguise.

My 2018 breakdown went something like this:

·         Learned new computer programs at work, kicked butt there

·         Went to Las Vegas twice for BMX

·         Went to Albuquerque for BMX

·         Traveled to California

·         Ran some races in California

·         Ran more races in Texas

·         Took over the permitting job at work!

·         Cried sometimes as I tried to balance all the training required for two sports

·         Went through SO many training setbacks and failures until I realized that I can’t do it all 100% of the time

·         Traveled to Belize

·         Made it through Thanksgiving with my family and bf and had a blast

·         Trained for my first marathon in 2019

·         My boyfriend bought a house and I spent the last weekend of 2018 helping decorating it

I am so lucky and blessed to have such a great year and going pretty much non-stop taught me so much. First, no matter how hard I try, I can’t take on everything and do everything all at once. The more I ran the less I could train for BMX, so that suffered, then the more I trained for BMX, the more my running suffered. Since I am not an Olympic level athlete and I can choose how I want to spend my free time, I choose to do both. Therefore, I learned to have patience, keep organized and do the best I can at each sport. After all, I love it all the same regardless of if my mile is a minute slower or not. Having faith in and enjoying the process is what it’s all about!

I also learned a lot about being confident in 2018 as well when it came to toxic people. I finally felt like it was completely OK to distance myself from toxic friends and keep those positive friendships close. I plan to keep this going in 2019, because we need to be able to tell the difference between a bad situation and a positive one, and sometimes it can be tough.  

I’m more confident at work and am no longer timid when it comes to speaking up (even though there were past jobs where I really regret not speaking up). I think that speaking up solves a lot of issues.

I’m excited for my first marathon and what 2019 will bring. I’m beyond excited to write up my new BMX/running training plan, as well as to incorporate new things into that plan and to see my BMX friends. I’m also looking forward to seeing my boyfriend’s new house when all the furniture arrives and to getting to witness by best friend’s baby start crawling later this year. If I’m right, 2019 will also be full of changes, and I plan to do my best to embrace them.  

I hope you all have a WONDERFUL beginning to your new year! Make those goals (I agree that resolutions never work, so goals it is)!