It’s been awhile, yes I know. I will follow this post up with one with updates. There’s been a lot going on, but I wanted to get this post out of the way first. And it’s turns out when I don’t write for a while, I have a lot to say…so I apologize in advance; this one’s a long one!

I’m totally a bandwagon blogger…but even if everyone wasn’t doing a “year in review” post, I’d want to one anyway.

Let’s start off with the new year’s resolutions and goals I made at the beginning of 2013:

1. Run one Race a month. I got all months except December. December kinda flew by me! The beginning of the month was filled with work. The middle of the month was filled with the FLU! YUCK! And the end of the month was filled with the Holidays and Snowboarding – a lot of if! So, I was pretty close to this goal, but not quite. I did run way more than 12 races, a race per month, so I can kinda count this as done…kinda. So I half crossed it off…

2. And 13 races in 2013. WOOT! I did 14 races!

3. Keep track of all my miles this year. ROFL! ahahahahahaha, like that was ever going to happen! I did pretty well until about march….

4. Volunteer at a race. Done! I volunteered at the Leadville 100 Trail Race. It was a BLAST!

5. Do a full marathon. WOOT WOOT! In case you missed the series of posts, I completed the Vermont City Marathon back in May.

6. Add 5 more 14er’s to my list. I only got to add one this year. Oh well!

7. Meet at least two more bloggers! Shoot! I didn’t get to meet any of you this year!

8. Graduate from NPTI! I mean, this was inevitable, but it was still on my list! I even graduated with honors!

9. MOVE! wah, wah. : (

10. I want to knock off a few more states. Check! I got 4 more states knocked off! Utah, Maine, Vermont and Arkansas!

11. Write a sponsor letter. I’m totally crossing this off because even though I didn’t write a specific sponsor letter, I did apply for the 3W Ambassador program, and got accepted. This program is basically a sponsorship!

I had 11 totally New Year’s Resolution/Goals and crossed off 6.5 of them…. looking strictly at numbers, I probably wouldn’t be too happy, but looking at the things I DID get accomplished, I’m ecstatic! Looking at the things I didn’t get to cross off, I’d say they were out of my control and just weren’t written in stars!

The year started out great, with great intentions and sadly, ended a little stressful. But all in all, I’d say the beginning of 2013 was a successful year – month by month:

January: I was a month into my Personal Training school, I was working at Dick’s Sporting Goods selling shoes, I was beginning to train for my first Marathon, all was looking good! I did the Resolute Runner 5K (which is by 3W Races that I am now an ambassador for)..

February: A few virtual races this month: the Heart Throb and the Tackle the Miles 5k (presented by the ladies that run the 13 in 2013 group), I started working at hell Bally’s (but we wont get into that right now – I’m over it!) in addition to school and my other job, and I was taking advantage of my snowboarding season pass from the 2012/2013 season, and I saw one of my favorite bands in Concert!

March: In the running world, I did the Erin Go Braugh 7.77k with a couple of friends (also a 3W race), I quit my job at Dick’s thinking Bally’s was going to be alright, but we all know how that went….

April: My bday month! I remember having a lot of dating horrible dating stories/drama (I still think I could have written a ridiculously hilarious dating blog), I ran the Rave Run with a thought to be friend, ran my favorite half marathon, the Horsetooth Half, and that’s about all I can think for April. (ADDED LATER: OH, I can’t believe I forgot! I ran the Horsetooth Half in conjunction with the Running for Angels virtual race!!)

Then there was May: I ran THREE races (all in DIFFERENT states!) – the Dino Half in Utah, the Sugarloaf 15K in Maine, and my VERY FIRST marathon in Vermont. I also went to my friend’s wedding on an Island in Maine!

June: As I neared the end of school, I got hired as a boot camp instructor and administrator assistant for Camp MissFits and also prematurely competed in my first event since my marathon, Tough Mudder. OUCH, that was painful. I learned how to shoot a gun – I’m pretty proud of that.

July: Started off with the Half on the 4th, I graduated Personal Training School, quit that nasty place we all refer to as Bally’s and did a lot of sight seeing in Colorado Springs, Warped tour, conquered the Manitou Incline…

August: Climbed 14,000+ feet on Gray’s peak, Volunteered at Leadville, started coaching high school cross-country at my alma mater, and ran the Arvada High School Alumni 5k!

September: Ran the Race for the Cure with my mom (I just realized I never did a recap of this race, darn!), visited the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, got pretty involved with my work, and started my own personal training business, but towards the end of the month dealt with a break up….

October: My mother got married and I met that boy you keep hearing me mention, I ran Halloween Hustle 5K, started picking up random odds jobs here and there, and oh yeah, the camp MissFits Pumpkin bootcamp was definitely a fun thing!

November: Guess what!? Snowboarding season starts!!!!!! I also went to visit my Dad in Arkansas, PR’d in he 5K with the NWA Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving and I feel this is when life started getting really stressful…more to come on that in my next post…

December: I spent more time snowboarding than anything else, enjoyed the holidays with my family and met the boy’s family, we had our MissFits Christmas Boot camp and I ended the year celebrating the boy’s bday.

Looking into the future/Goals/Resolutions/etc:

I accomplished a lot when everything is written down, but somehow I still feel like I took a bunch of steps backward; mostly in regards to my personal and career situations.

I’m trying to be super optimistic for the year 2014. It’s hard, it really is. It’s not starting out that well. Without going into detail, I’ve been pretty stressed about a lot of things, and I’ve been desperate for change. But A) it would be hard to explain it all in a blog post and B) I don’t really want to share that in the vast world of the internet. I apologize for being vague – I know when I read others’ vague writings, I get SUPER curious.

However, I’m feeling pretty motivated right now to make that change happen. I have a lot of options, goals and dreams to sort through and put into action.

Here’s a little bit of a look what I would like to accomplish this year.

My new year’s resolutions, if you will:

Running Related Goals:

1. Run 14 races in 2014. If interested in joining the #14in2014 community with me, you can check it out here.

2. Volunteer for at least two running events. Should be easy considering it’s part of my “job” as a 3W Race Ambassador!

3. I really would like to knock off another Marathon (either here in CO or another state). And yes, I was supposed to do the Sedona Marathon here in a couple weeks…..but I cannot for a few reasons (finances and painful knees)….more on that later…. : (

4. I would like to get at least one more state (preferably more, but I don’t want to set my bar TOO high with the stress of my finances and job situation).

Other Fitness Related Goals:

1. Climb at least one 14er. Setting the bar low this time here too, just in case this summer turns crazy like last summer and I don’t get to go as much as I would like.

2. Be happy with my body! This sounds really weird and is probably worth a whole blog post, and I’m not saying I’m fat or anything, I just want to go back to being more comfortable in my own skin, like I used to. I’ve fallen off my normal fitness routine wagon.

Life Goals:

1. Be stable. I mostly mean financially, but in all aspects of life as well. I won’t go into details, because that’s not appropriate for my blog, but this is a HUGE life goal for me.

2. I don’t know how to put this, but one goal of mine is to “nail down,” so to speak, a plan of action for my career. I have a dream goal/career in mind for sure, and I’m really passionate about it, but I need to nail it down and set a path with steps to achieving it.

3. Get my RRCA Coaching Certification. This will be the next step for my career plan..that I know for sure. The class is just so sporadic and pretty expensive, as most of you probably are aware. They came to CO last year, but I was still in school and had to take an elective that I couldn’t make up. I was super bummed.

Addendum 1/16 (numbers 4 and 5 were added after I officially posted this blog post): 4. After ready a blog post by one of my favorite bloggers Amy over at Lavender Parking Running, I am adding another one: Try one thing new every month. This could be something huge, like a new sport, event or activity or something small like a new food…or toothpaste…(Just kidding).

5. I’m also adding one I thought of myself: Become a more independent. To me, this means just learning how to do things on my own and not necessarily go to others. I’m pretty independent already, but for example, recently the boy taught me how to wax and tune my own snowboard. I was really excited to learn this and now I don’t have to pay someone to do it. Things like that.

That’s all I can think of right now…but I’m sure as soon as I post this, three more ideas will fly up to my brain!

And with that, I will end this post. You turn: What is your number one new year’s resolution??