Hi Everyone!
(by “everyone” I mean my mother-in-law and my running buddy — UPDATED: and El Profesor)
I hope that you all had a fun night last night and rang in the new year with enthusiasm!
I rang it in with a glass of wine and a relaxed fun night out with El Profesor.
I am so happy to begin another year of our life together : )
As I kick off my 2014 posts, I wanted to write a little about my goals for 2014. The list is not as long as it was last year. Mainly, I’m looking forward to traveling internationally (South Africa) and back to the Pacific Northwest (Seattle, maybe?), running a PR in the NYC Half (I’d like to go for a 1:55 or better) and spending some more time figuring out my next phase of professional goals (my job situation is still not quite what I’ve been hoping for and I’m still not feeling totally fulfilled).
So I thought it would be a worthwhile exercise to take a look back at my 2013 goals and see how I did:
Complete my first marathon. DID IT!
Participate in group runs. I ran one group run with Jack Rabbit, and it was fine. Fun, even. But it was a nighttime run so I was happy to run with a group for safety, but I really didn’t like running in the dark and was afraid that I would fall or hurt myself. So, this was a one time thing.
Participate in a relay. Nope. Haven’t done it. I still would like to, though.
Run a cross-country style trail race. Nope. Haven’t done it. It is still very high on my list; and though I haven’t raced on trails, I have definitely trained on them and I’ve enjoyed that quite a lot.
Travel abroad. We did not. However, we’ve planned a big trip for this winter and we traveled extensively in the US: DC, Philly, Chicago, Miami, Vegas, Denver, Boulder and Portland. We’ve hiked and explored places very different from our home town, so my 2013 wanderlust was largely satisfied, even if we didn’t leave the continental US.
Shop a little bit less. Accomplished. Until the end of the year when I became obsessed with home decorating. And yes, I am still doing the order online, then return shuffle. And I get annoyed with myself every time. After I finish this next round of returns, I will only be buying in person. As far as clothes and things for myself, my new guilty pleasure is treating myself to a new color of Cover Girl lipstick at CVS. My mother-in-law treated me to some new clothes and accessories at the DKNY outlet before I started my new job (thank you!), and I bought a bunch of Oiselle gear because I needed to know what all of the buzz was about. It’s all very buzzworthy, by the way.
Start taking more pictures – and posting them on this site. I have taken more pictures, but haven’t posted any here in a long, long time.
Guest post on other blogs. Nope. But I was sponsored by the Saucony 26 Strong Project for the NYC Marathon. I had hoped this would draw more attention to RachelOnandOn, but it doesn’t seem to have had any impact. I was chosen because of an entry essay, though they’ve never retweeted me or linked up to RachelOnandOn.
Write gear reviews. I’ve done this on twitter.
Review the work of others who write about running. I haven’t done this, but I would like to.
ACSM, RRCA and/or USATF Certification. DID IT! In April, I became a certified USATF Level I coach!!!! So proud.
So I’m feeling really good about my ability to set goals and reach them.
And in 2014, I know I will continue to
Run On™
Rachel On and On 
Happy New Year to you too. I can’t believe we met on a street corner a couple years ago and we are still friends. I’m so happy we are though…love having you in my life!
Xoxo
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