2017

Good Bye 2017, Hello 2018

2017 for us was our first full year of being married, and we had a lot of fun experiencing it together!

2017 Experiences

  • Traveling. A LOT. I didn’t get a ton accomplished outside of this, but bein
    g able to see parts of the US that I’ve never seen before was pretty much worth it. Denver, CO. Raleigh, NC… And got to get back out to Portland, OR and Seattle, WA. Sharing those fun adventures with Chris was a lot of fun.
  • Broke PRs. Running wise, 2018 was a rocket year. I PR’ed my 2M, 5K, 10K and 13.1M distances. 26.2M would have been a PR if my legs could have stayed healthy at the end. I’m happy to say I’m back at it with fresh legs.
  • Drank a lot of good craft beer. Along with traveling, I also got to visit a lot of local craft breweries along the way. A few of my favorites include:
    • Outlander (Seattle, WA): With so many different flavors to choose from, Outlander was definitely my favorite from our Northwest trip. Despite it’s small appearance from the outside, it has a lot to offer craft beer lovers. Meeting the man behind the scenes was pretty cool as well.
    • Bombshell Brewery (Holly Springs, NC): After arriving at the brewery, I had no idea what I was getting out of my 45 minute drive outside of Raleigh. I got to meet Ellen, one of the very few women craft beer owners in the country, and fan girl over her achievements. Their Oktoberfest and Lady in Red both were great; I wish I had of had more time to try more. If we ever make it back out to that part of the country, I will be sure to be back for more.
    • Heavy Riff Brewing/Center Ice Brewing (St Louis, MO): It’s a tie between these two for my favorite this year. Heavy Riff has some excellent dark brews, and Center Ice is fantastic, especially for being very new to the brewing scene. Both are off on their own, so you don’t get a ton of bar hoppers, making them both very easy to socialize and hang out at.

I try my best to not think of goals as resolutions, because let’s be honest.. Resolutions usually fall through in the first few months of the year. Instead, I’m trying to create a list of goals with dates/times tied to them for 2018.

2018 Goals

  • Web Design & Development Improvement. Lately I’ve felt like I’ve been on the “going with the flow” train with my work skills. I’ve been taking a few online classes here and there as well as getting to know CSS Grid, but feel like with frameworks like React.js becoming more and more popular, I’ve got some serious catching up to do. I’m going to update my Web Portfolio (and actually get a URL that doesn’t use my maiden name) and hopefully be able to catch back up to modern front-end web development times.
  • Draw More. To go along with design, I need to feel more comfortable drawing. I realize I’m never going to become a well known illustrator, but drawing more will help me create icons and my overall design skills improve. Plus drawing should be fun, not something I stress over.
  • Reading. Along with the Web Development magazine I just subscribed to, I need to get better about getting away from my cell phone and actually finish some books. I have to finish Mistborn: The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson, and then jump into Lord of Shadows by Cassandra Claire that I got for Christmas this year.
  • Catch Up on Kingdom Hearts Series. I’m nearing the end of Kingdom Hearts II, but need to complete the rest of KH2.5 and get through 2.8 before KHIII is released. Here’s to hoping we’ll at least get a release date on that one this year!

Not a ton of goals as you can see, but I also want to be able to focus on these three (or four if you count the silly one). For myself, in general, I need to be better about being okay about staying at home and getting things done rather than traveling every weekend. I’m sure my wallet would enjoy that as well.

Don’t get me wrong though, I’m still going to get out and have a good time every so often. We already have tickets to see Story of the Year in this weekend down in St. Louis, and a Gulf Shores, AL trip is in the works for May. And of course there will be new craft brews to try along the way.

Just spreading out the trips here and there… For balance.

I hope your 2018 goals go smoothly as well.

Peoria & the Steamboat Classic 2017

It’s crazy how time flies. One moment you’re being proposed to, you say yes, the next blink of the eye, you’re married and half way through your first year of being a Mrs.

Our wedding day is one I’ll never forget; the weather was perfect for our outdoor ceremony and the reception was a ton of fun thanks to our family and friends. (Obviously Chris was extra pumped because his Cubs clinched their World Series spot. And we all know how that one ended.)

Now here we are in the middle of June. Life is slowly getting back to normal. Races have been run, travel is coming, and nerd-ing out has happened on a regular basis.

This past weekend we headed over to Peoria to run the Steamboat Classic. We traveled Friday night, because who wants to get up at 4am and drive the same day to and from a race? Our pre-race dinner always consists of pizza and beer.. Carbs and protein. Right??

I searched out several places, and eventually we decided on Old Chicago. Yes, it’s a chain, but a chain we’ve never been to and it had hand tossed pizza.

Hand tossed pizza of awesomeness. And a pretty good selection of craft beer; several of the choices were from around the area. The pizza crust even supposedly had ‘ale’ in it. We were impressed with that along with the delicious toppings.

I tried Cathedral Square Brewery’s Heavenly Honey Razz and it. Was. Heavenly. It’s a great summer beer – light in feel and has a nice sweet taste at the end. Not candy sweet, but more of a raspberry, fruity sweet.

I also tried Bell’s Brewery Oarsman Ale and wasn’t as impressed. Pretty bland, but it wasn’t the worst either.

We stayed at our first AirBnB that evening and had an awesome hostess. We actually never got to meet her, but got to meet her pup. Cassie was a big ol’ teddy bear who loved to hand out kisses. There was also much cuddling.

The next morning we went downtown for the race. It was packed; I knew it was pretty big due to how fast the finishers were from the previous year, but it was still an eye opener when we got there. The weather was great at the start; the clouds hid the sun, there was no humidity and a slight breeze.

I was slightly nervous since I forgot my GPS watch at home. I know people say they run their best races without a watch, but I like to be able to look every once and awhile to make sure I’m not being stupid and running something I feel good now in but hate myself halfway in and half-dead jogging the rest of the way. I knew they were going to have a clock at every mile mark, but still.

We runners have our tendencies we like to keep. I tend to not like to mix it up on race day.

Despite that, we both had a great run. The race course was fun. Not much in the way of uphills… Until you get to the halfway point. We decided to do the 4 miler; the 15K-ers split off in the middle of our run to go do their thing. I looked over to where they were heading and was very happy we made the choice we did. The 15K-ers were sent straight to a pretty steep uphill. Good luck to them, I thought.

However at that point, the weather did start to change. The humidity started to raise it’s ugly head and the sweating commenced. I thanked God for the half-way water stop where I chugged down some water and kept going. At mile three there was a water mister you could run through… And I most definitely made it a point to run through that glorious tunnel of water.

We got to run flat until the last half mile, where there was a nice downhill to the finish.

My favorite kind of finish.

I finished Steamboat Classic’s 4 mile race in 32:46, finished in the top 10 of my age group, and impressed myself by keeping around a 8:12 minute pace without my trusty GPS watch. Am I impressed with my mental status to keep myself in check throughout the race? Yes.

Am I still going to race with a GPS watch? Without a doubt, hell yes.