Don't Call it a Comeback...

It's coming up on a year now since I've done any racing.  Let's be honest, it's been almost a year since I've really done any running!  Ridiculous, I know.  If you ask me why I stopped running, I can't come up with a great reason.  My last race was the Catalina Eco-Marathon at the end of November, and it was my favorite race to-date.  A gorgeous course, top-notch company, and I felt great; couldn't have asked for a better weekend on the island!

Why did I "leave" on such a good note?  It was a combination of being burned out from running, and wanting to spend time doing other fun stuff.  After I graduated college in 2009, I ran my first half marathon.  Before that, I really hadn't run much since track season my senior year in high school, or more than 6 miles.  Over the next year and a half, I ran my first, second, and third marathon as well as quite a few half marathons.  I was doing a race every month, and it was a lot.  Uffdah.  At the same time, I had just moved out to California from Minnesota, where I still hadn't met a lot of new friends...most people I knew my age were out on weekends and week nights playing coed sports, hanging out at the beach, partying at the bars, or all of the above.  Although I was having a great time, all I was doing was running and passing on most of the socializing...until this year. dun dun dunnnn.

So what have I spent all my time doing these first 9.5 months of 2011?  Well...

1.  I learned how to play ultimate frisbee, and met a bunch of fun new people.  My third season started this week and I'm proud to say that I do not suck, regardless of having very unreliable disc throwing skills.

2.  I continued to play kickball every Monday night, and was appointed team captain last season.  In a few weeks we're going to Vegas for the national kickball championships.  That's right, we're kind of a big deal.  However, after playing kickball for almost 2 years, I'm retiring for a while after the Vegas tournament.

...but I'm only retiring to try a new sport: Dodgeball!

3.  I did manage to fit in one running event, a 4ish mile mud run at Irvine Lake.  It was a blast with Gavin's Groupies!

4.  On a whim, I was convinced to join a bunch of guys from work on a 100ish mile ride down to San Diego. After not biking more than 6 miles over the course of a few months, and about 75 miles being my longest ride ever, I'm not sure why I thought this was a good idea, but it turned out to be a great trip!  I may have slowed everyone down more than they're nice enough to admit, but we'll blame it on my bike being heavy :-)

5.  I was in two weddings this year.  I was a reader for my step-brother's wedding in April, where I got to spend some quality time in Iowa.

And I had my bridesmaid debut in my good friend/college roommate's wedding a few weeks ago.  I spent lots of time and had a ton of fun helping plan the bachelorette party, and had a great time spending about a week on my old stomping grounds in Madison!  Although I now feel ancient because college kids look 12.

And all the time in-between was spent living it up in SoCal with new friends as well as old, doing anything from having a sangria-off (mine won), to dressing up as the Goonies at an 80s party, to shenanigans at the 6-man tournament.

See, I haven't just been sitting on the couch...at least not most of the time :-)

That being said...I [finally] MISS RUNNING.  I'm not sure how much I miss all the required time needed to train well, but I miss having goals and impressing myself when I achieve them.  I miss how refreshed and strong you feel after completing a long run.  And most of all, I miss races, with all the people and the sense of accomplishment after crossing the finish line, especially with a surprisingly fast time.  

So that I have something to work towards, I signed up for the Surf City Half...my comeback race!  I'm going to be starting over from scratch with the mileage and speed, and don't plan on doing any fulls in the near future, but I'm looking forward to see what I can do.  Time to remember how to create a training plan...is there an app for that yet?

I'm Coming Out....

...of my pitiful four month rut filled with copious amounts of running loathage and complete demotivational suckage. Yeah, that about sums it up.

Since completing my first marathon on May 2nd, I've been very down on running.  I'm not sure why or how it started.  I was thrilled to have run my first marathon, and I guess equally thrilled to not have to run 4-5 days a week for hours on end.  I finally had a life again, even if it wasn't very eventful, and within record time it seemed I had kicked that running habit and developed a new one as a laziness extraordinaire.  But when it came time to start training for Chicago in July, I got right back into the swing of things...I wish.

I didn't completely quit running, as I had a "goal" this year to run a race every month, but those races seemed to make up the majority of the running I did, and needless to say, they didn't go over super well.

Here are some very brief recaps of the races I completed this summer (yep, I was that unexcited about running I couldn't even find the motivation to blog about the races at the time).

Peters Canyon Summer Trail Series
This is a really chill, fun, series of 5-mile trail races that happen on a Thursday evening once a month over the summer.  This was also my very first trail run last summer after moving out to California and I was excited to run the course again.

I managed to beat my time from last year at all three races, and had a blast despite being rather out of shape!

San Francisco 1st Half Marathon
I decided to sign up for this race somewhat last minute to complete 2/3 of the California Dreamin' Series.  I was not ready for this race AT ALL as I had not run AT ALL in at least a week.  However, this ended up being a fantastic weekend since I finally got to meet my twitter buds Ron and Joe and tour some of SF on my 2nd visit to the city.

I met up with Ron first thing after getting off the BART to get my race bag he was kind enough to pick up for me, and ended up running with him for the first 6 miles of the race the next morning until my bum calf (and lack of running) forced me to resign from my "pacing" duties.  Ron kicks ass and I was honored to have been able to run with him, even if it was only 6 miles :-)

Running over the Golden Gate Bridge was pretty spectacular, and it was a great course in general...but the hills...you'd have to be crazy to run the full marathon.  I struggled a bit from about mile 11 on, and finished around 2:16 - not a PR, but not my worst half either - I'll take it!

After the race, I got a chance to have some drinks with Joe at his Runners World get together and had a bitchin time hanging out, relaxing, and talking until I had to leave to catch my flight.

Bulldog 25k
This race was absolutely BRUTAL as I was not trained or ready one bit.  It took me only 50 minutes less to complete this 15ish mile run than it did to complete my first marathon...yikes!  I don't have a whole lot to say about this race other than it was a really hot, really scenic, really exhausting 15 mile walk in the Santa Monica mountains on a lovely Saturday morning!  I won the battle a 65 yr old man decided to start with me around mile 4, and I only got lapped by about 10 of the people running the 50k - so I'll call that a win!

Special thanks to the race photographers for displaying "warning" signs that I better "look cool" and like I'm "having fun" because they would be taking our pictures up ahead.  This is the only reason I look so happy and awesome :-).

After the race I got to hang out with Josh, Graham and a few other friends and talk about my death march while we watched some more of the fast 50k racers finish close behind me.


You'd think with a decent amount of races this summer that my training for my next big race, the Chicago Marathon, has been going well.  Noooope.  Once I got out of the habit of running practically everyday, I could never get it back.  No matter how much I fought with myself, I'd always come up with some excuse not to run, and usually the excuse wasn't good.  I just didn't want to run; it no longer seemed fun - just a lot of time and energy I didn't want to spend running all over the place, and a lot of aches and pains I didn't want to feel.  The excitement of completing my first marathon was gone and I couldn't figure out why I'd want to do it all over again so soon.  The motivation and desire wasn't there, I couldn't find it, and as a result I've probably logged about half as many miles as I did training for my first marathon.

Chicago is just over a month away and I'm finally ready to bust out of this sucktastic running funk.


I watched "Spirit of the Marathon" the other night and something finally clicked back on, and I'm finally excited and passionate about running again.  Due to the unfortunate training leading up to this point, Chicago is going to be painful for me, no doubt, but I can't wait for the big city, the enthusiastic crowds, and hopefully all the tweeps I get to meet and/or see again; it's going to be an absolute blast.

Yesterday I went for my first run in about a week and it was fan-fucking-tastic.  I haven't felt that great on a run since I can remember :-)

Stay away injuries, and bring it on...cuz I'm back!

I'm a Marathoner!

It still hasn't quite sunk in that I just ran 26.2 miles.  Ignoring my screaming quads, it doesn't feel like I ran that far, or like I spent almost 5 hours of my day just running - it feels more like I just finished a long training run, and a lot of people happened to be there, or something.  It's a strange "did that really happen? naw, it couldn't have" sort of feeling, but at the same time I'm floating on cloud 9, and a bit sore in funny places, so I must have done something amazing!  Maybe I need to go drive what I can of the course and remind myself that I am a crazy person who just ran crazy far.

Thanks to my mom, who flew in from Minnesota to visit and watch me run my first marathon, I got to spend Friday and Saturday at the Newport Beach Marriott conveniently located about two blocks from the start of the marathon.  It was a bit funny staying at a hotel for a marathon only 6 miles away from my apartment in Huntington Beach, but it was incredibly relaxing and made the morning of the marathon way less hectic.  I spent most of my Saturday eating, drinking lots of water, and relaxing next to one of the pools.  A little taste of heaven.

Sunday morning, I didn't have to wake up until shortly after 5am since we had literally a 5 min walk to the starting line.  I got dressed, pinned on my number, made some oatmeal, and headed up to the lobby to give Billy his race number.  We headed back down to the room where Pete was still getting ready, and chatted for a bit while I finished my oatmeal.  It was great to see Billy before the race, and hear that he would be biking around looking for me around the 20 mile mark after he finished the half.

Finally, at about 6:10am we headed to the start of the race.  I told Pete good-luck, and he jogged to the start to make his way up towards the front with the fast people since he was going to be running a speedy half.  My mom and I then casually walked over to the crowded start, and I eventually planted myself near "corral C."  I realized later, after waiting 10 minutes just to cross the start line, that I probably should have lined up a bit closer.  Oh well.  It was during this time that a few "fast" guys were complaining about how they somehow managed to line up towards the back of the pack and one felt the need to say, "so this is what it's like to be slow."  I wanted to slap him.  If you're a fast marathoner...shouldn't you know better?

Anyway, I was surprisingly the least nervous I've ever been for a race, and was relaxed when I finally made my way across the starting line some time around 6:40am.

Miles 1-5:
Taking most everyone's advice, I started off slow - almost painfully slow.  Since we started with the half marathoners, and they greatly out-numbered the marathoners (1498 marathoners finished; 6112 half marathoners finished), it was a little hard to keep going at a slow pace, and people were passing me left and right, but I knew it was for the best and averaged the first 5 miles at about a 10:45 pace, still feeling fresh and full of energy.  I relaxed and enjoyed the only views I'd be seeing of the ocean, and sort of watched all of the people around me.  I teared up a bit when I saw a lady running for a little girl named Andrea who had cancer - the picture on her shirt, and the fact that she had my name, made me sad.  I also got a bit emotional when I saw the Marines pushing their Sergeant in a wheel chair.  At this point, I told myself I wasn't even to mile 5, and I really needed to mentally HTFU if I was going to make it to the finish!

Miles 6-10:
I was most excited for this part of the course.  It was mainly through the beautiful Back Bay, where I had done both of my 20 mile training runs, and I knew my mom would be waiting for me at the top of the hill at the 9.5 mile mark.  I was still going pretty slow, even getting a little bit slower.  This is the first point where I contemplated picking the pace up since I was feeling good, but since I had never done this before and it was still early in the race, I kept trotting along at about the same pace.  Somewhere between miles 8 and 9 I could tell my legs were getting a little bit tired, and it freaked me out a bit since it was so early in the race!  I told myself my legs were just warming up, working out the kinks, and I'd be fine.  I ran past a bunch of people walking up the hill (that was fun!), and saw my mom - who had surprised me by making a sign!

Miles 11-15:

The most annoying part of the race for the marathon runners.  I lost count of how many times volunteers and people cheering yelled, "you're almost there!" because we were running with the people doing the half marathon.  I wasn't even half of the way there so hearing this over and over was not fun, at all.  Just after mile 12, we parted ways with the half marathon runners, and suddenly it was like I was running alone.  I went from being surrounded by tons of people to having maybe 10 runners in sight.  My energy fizzled a bit from lack of commotion, but it was also calming and I started feeling really strong.  I decided to pick up the pace a bit, running close to 10 minute miles for a couple miles, but again got "scared" that I would totally run out of energy later since I had no idea what to expect, and slowed back down - and ended up maintaining this average pace for the rest of the race.  About half way between miles 13 and 14, I knew to look for Jeff and his son, and was really excited and feeling amazing when I came across them making HUGE bubbles for all of the runners.  I gave his son a high-five, Jeff told me I was looking good, I said thanks, and kept chugging along.

Miles 16-20:

Soon after mile 15 is when things started getting a little sketchy.  We had just come down from a fairly big hill, I ate a Gu and drank some water and I felt a bit sick.  Thankfully the nausea faded quickly, but my legs were starting to hurt.  I saw my mom again at mile 16.5, and when she asked how I was doing, I told her it was starting to get painful.  It was great seeing my mom again, but I knew that would be my last familiar face until Billy found me around mile 20.

Miles 17 through 20 are kind of a blur.  It was the only area of the course I wasn't familiar with, and I don't really remember it.  The pain was coming and going every few minutes and wasn't bad at all, but I was definitely getting tired, and I kept telling myself I just needed to get to mile 20 and I would make it to the finish.

Miles 21-26.2:

It was so great to see the 20 mile sign, and it was even better to see Billy up ahead soon after!  He briefly chatted with me, took a shockingly great picture, and headed back to his bike - telling me he'd meet up with me up ahead a bit.

I was running a bit slower, but still feeling relatively good at this point.  A little before mile 21, Billy met up with me again and ran with me for about a mile.  It was so great to have a friend to talk to to distract me from my legs that were slowly getting more and more tired.  

After Billy left again, I was looking forward to finding Pete.  I was a little worried his race may have left him incapable of running with me, but the plan was for him to be somewhere around mile 23.  Moments after turning a corner past the mile 23 sign, there he was!  I could tell I didn't have much left in my legs, and was so glad to see him.  He slowly ran with me, talking to me about his race, when the next aid station would be, told me I looked like I was still doing pretty good, and all that good stuff...and I was doing my best to contribute to the conversation.  Then BAM!  Right around mile 24 I hit the "wall."  I was done.  It was extremely painful to keep moving.  I wanted to stop and walk, but thankfully Pete made me keep going.  I also started to get a bit cranky and Pete's talking, and usually welcome enthusiasm made me want to punch him...in a nice way :-)  We saw Billy again around mile 25, and he captured this great picture that illustrates this perfectly.

I've never tried so hard to smile in my life!  Pete quieted down a bit, I kept slowly putting one foot in front of the other, and somehow made it to mile 26 - only 0.2 to go!  Pete was forced off the course, and I kicked it in to the finish - running a speedy 9:07 pace to the finish.  I was so happy to be done!  I just became a marathoner!  The initial awe wore off a few seconds later when my legs, hips, butt, everything started aching so bad I was in tears.  I walked around a bit to find my mom and Pete and had to sit down.  Again, SO glad Pete did not let me stop...if that is what stopping feels like - holy moly!

Finishing my first marathon was a great experience I will definitely never forget, and I'm thankful I am able to accomplish such a feat!  I was hoping to run close to 4:30, but I couldn't be happier with my official 4:50:23 finish.  I wanted my first marathon to be a FUN learning experience, and it was definitely that!  I know what I want to change, and what I want to remain the same during my training and during my next marathon.  And, I made it out alive with no puking or bowel movements, all of my toenails, only three blisters, a pretty sweet medal, and one big smile :-D

Special thanks again to my mom, Jeff, Pete, and Billy for cheering for me and running with me on the course.  And to everyone else (on Twitter and in person) who has given me tons of advice and have been incredibly supportive :-)

For the curious:
Garmin Connect Data
Race Results (bib #158)
Training Plan (deviations in red)

OMG, Shoes!

Yesterday, I bought new running shoes.  Not because I found a flashy new pair I wanted, or because I didn't like the ones I had, but because I actually wore them out!  This is a first for me, and it's also the first pair of shoes that mean something to me - as dumb as that sounds.

I found it a little annoying to buy the EXACT same pair of shoes, but I really liked them, and with the marathon in about 2.5 weeks, I had a slight fear of changing the shoes I had just spent 3.5 months training with.  Also, since they're an "endangered shoe," I got a sweet discount - looks like next time I'll have to try something different.

Leave it to a new, bright white pair of shoes to make you realize how worn and dirty the old ones have become.

Now, I've kept old tennis shoes before, but that's because they're still in fairly decent condition and I can use them for pick-up games of basketball, kickball, biking around, going for walks, etc, and when it gets to that point, I don't think I would have an issue throwing them away.  In this case, I feel like I'm in some weird limbo of not knowing if I should keep these shoes or get rid of them.  They're old, dirty, run down shoes that no longer serve much purpose, yet I feel some sort of nostalgia for them.  They were with me when I broke the 2 hour barrier in a half marathon, they took me up some ridiculous, beautiful, trails I never thought I'd ever be running on, and most importantly to me, they were the shoes I used to start training for my very first marathon.

After years of shaking my head, I think I finally understand why my dad still has t-shirts and shoes from significant marathons and various other races dating back to the 1970s, even though you can practically see through some of the shirts they're so old, and the shoes have ridiculous leather patches (if I remember correctly, he still takes these out for a run on occasion) or soles mended with a hot glue gun.

I remain in shoe limbo.  I feel too attached to my shoes to just throw them in the trash.  Yet it seems asinine to keep smelly, dirty shoes - and this is just one pair, what happens when I've accumulated dozens?!  Maybe I will use the old shoes for the occasional trail run I do, since they're already dirty.  Or maybe they'll find a permanent home in the plastic bin in my closet, taking up space...next to my dusty track spikes (hey, you never know when you'll need those again!).

Do other people feel this way?  What do you do with your old shoes?

The Car Chronicles

So about that being carless when I moved to California thing?

Things started out great.  I had a 12 mile commute to work that took some getting used to, but I really started to enjoy the cool, crisp mornings and the mellow, calming rides home after work.  After a long day, it was so relaxing.  And being a Minnesota girl, this weather was just too good to be true, and I was more than willing to spend my mornings and evenings commuting.  If for some reason I wasn't up for the ride, the bus was always a fairly convenient alternative.  As described in this post, I really was falling in love with the commuting lifestyle, and I became a lot more serious about sticking with it...I even vowed to stop using Pete's truck for things like grocery shopping.  By the end of November, I was enjoying biking so much, that Pete and I spent a week biking 400 miles up mountains, across the desert, around a sea...and back.  It was one of the best experiences of my life and it made me even more passionate about being on my bike.

I'm not entirely sure where my turning point was, it may have started with all of the rain we got, but by January biking started to lose it's fun.  Commuting was no longer enjoyable.  It became a chore.  Something I had to do everyday.  I described the pros and cons of being without a car here.  However, finding and buying a car is a pain, especially when you don't know much about cars and have never done it before, so I pedaled on, looking here and there every once in a while.

Things really got bad about a month ago.  I mean REALLY bad.  Drivers appeared to get ridiculously dumb, careless, and evil.  I had a lot of close-calls, and I started getting severe road rage.  This is not good when you're on a bike.  I wanted to plow people over...who were in cars...going fast.  Get the picture?  It got so bad, that commuting made me want to cry, and I wanted nothing to do with it.  From then on, I would take the bus.  I guess you could say I hit the "wall?"

In the midst of my commuting mid-life crisis, I got an email from an angel named "My Dad" (my mom's gonna love that one).  He asked me if I would like to buy his 2000 Jetta for $2k.  Umm...YES.  That decision took about a minute.  Best day of my life!  Long story short, the Jetta made it from Houston to Huntington Beach via some plane rides and road trips, and my life is already better.

Since I retrieved my car almost 2 weeks ago, I've been able to get out and do so many more things without having to rely on Pete or a bus or my own two legs.  One nice thing is being able to sleep more in the morning because my travel time is about 40 min less, and my nights seem longer for the same reason.  Yay more time to run!  I was also able to go drive to San Diego for a night, a new place to do my 20 mile run and cheer on everyone at the LA marathon!  I also signed up for another race in the Santa Monica Mountains next weekend...BECAUSE I CAN DRIVE THERE...and because it sounds fun :)

All of the biking I did was a great experience, but after 9 months, I learned a completely carless lifestyle is not for me, at least not while I'm living here.  Now that I have been driving for a while, the idea of biking to work again is actually kind of exciting and I plan to start commuting a few days a week soon.  There's definitely a difference between having to bike to work, and wanting to bike to work.  It's nice to finally have that option.

23 years; 23 proud memories

Yesterday was my 23rd birthday, and as part of my birthday celebration, Pete and I went on a nice bike ride down the coast from Huntington Beach to Solana Beach.  It was an absolutely AMAZING day outside, and although I love my home state, I am SO glad I didn't have to spend my birthday cooped up inside because of -15F temperatures.  I hadn't done any biking for a couple weeks so I was a tad timid about this 75 mile ride (longest ever by about 4 miles)...but I made it!  And, I had a great birthday :)

So in honor of my birthday accomplishment, I thought I'd share 23 things I've accomplished or learned over the past 23 years that I'm proud of or are at least worthy enough to mention.

In no particular order of recollection (hello, randomness)...

1. Biking 75 miles in one stretch
2. Running 2 half marathons
3. Completing a 9-day, 400-some mile bike tour
4. Moving outside of my comfort zone: almost 2000 miles away from home (still not sure why they needed an 18-wheeler for my small room full of stuff)

5. Graduating from UW-Madison with a BS in Materials Science & Engineering
6. Making the Dean's list all 4 years
7. Summiting Mt. Baldy while totally out of shape

8. Winning a coloring contest in 2nd grade
9. Being the high-scorer in a high school basketball game (14 points)

10. Graduating from high school
11. Getting 1st place in the 800m at a high school track meet
12. Being a big sister

13. Getting accepted into UW-Madison, and then into the engineering program
14. Being front row, center in a few of my many dance recitals
15. Learning how to fall in and out of love
16. Getting rid of my car
17. Running a 5:40 min first mile in a cross-country race (and then freaking out and slowing down for the remaining 1.5 :-P)

18. Getting a poem published in a book in 5th grade
19. Learning to play the guitar and clarinet
20. Completing an 18 mile hike while going from Two Harbors to Avalon

21. Learning to appreciate traveling
22. Having research results published in a journal
23. Making life-long friends

And many more...but my memory isn't that great.  Through all it's ups and downs, I love my life! :)

Top Tres of 2009

About this time last year I was sitting around a table in Chicago with Pete and a couple of his friends, Rooster and Tuna.  Rooster asked us to tell our "top 3 of the year."

As everyone started reflecting on their accomplishments and adventures over the past 365 days, I was sitting there thoughtless.  Moving from person to person, I was hearing crazy stories about traveling to Africa and summiting Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. Kenya, running ridiculous ultra marathon distances that were unimaginable to me, and finishing some sort of seemingly freakish adventure race.  I was no longer thoughtless - I was thinking, "I guess I am  4-5 years younger than all these people, but is my life really that lame?!"  Still being half-way through my last year of college, the sort of "accomplishments" that started to run through my head were how I won 10 games in a row of beer pong, didn't fall off any bleachers and break a leg while "jumping around," and did such a great job cramming for finals (in between the parties) that I pulled off an awesome GPA.  When it came down to it, I think I said my top 3 were running a race with my dad, and summiting Mt. Baldy and San Gorgonio Mountain - decent accomplishments for someone who had been almost completely inactive for 3 years, if you ask me.  But I still felt like a total lame-o in comparison.

This year, my top 3 (and more) came to me right away, and they're way less lame!  Watch out, Pete Posse, I'm almost as cool as you :)  Drum roll please...

Graduating from College
Although going to college seems like something almost everyone does these days, I'm proud of myself.  I worked hard to get into a great school, and worked even harder to graduate with great grades, make (and keep) great friends, and gain great experiences.

The four years I spent in Madison were some of the best I've had.  I was definitely sad to leave, but it makes me happy to be able to reflect on all I've accomplished and all of the memories I've made.


Half Marathons
As I've said before, I ran my first two half marathons this year after ending my 3 year hiatus towards the end of 2008.  I'm definitely not fast (yet!), but slowly getting into running again this year has allowed me to meet some great new people, accomplish running distances I never had before, set goals I never thought I'd be setting a year ago, and obviously stay healthy!  I felt accomplished after running 13.1 miles twice this year, the longest distance I've gone...but can't wait to go further in '010!

Becoming a Biker Babe

With plans to get rid of my car and do lots of bike commuting once I moved to California, I received a brand new Surly LHT from my mom and dad for a graduation present.  I had never done much biking before - just an occasional, leisurely ride on a bike trail, around the lake near my house, or back and forth to classes on an old bike similar to what you'd find at Target.  I was excited to start biking around, but it was definitely unfamiliar territory.  I remember asking Pete to explain the correct way to shift and how fast or slow I should be pedaling.  And, I had to have my step-dad show me how to step into and get out of my pedals without crashing.  Then there was buying a rear rack, fenders, water bottle cages, a seat, lights, a helmet, shorts, jerseys, panniers...umm, yeah sure, that one looks good!  Total n00b, but hey, it turned out pretty sweet!

By July, I was biking to work and taking the bus back a few days a week - 12 miles in the morning was enough to tire me out, and trying to bike 12 miles home again into the wind was too difficult.  Soon, I found myself biking to an Angels game, the grocery store, Newport, etc., and was able to start making the commute to AND from work.  Come October, I managed to ride both ways for an entire week and I was actually starting to really enjoy biking.  Then in November, I completed my first bike tour with Pete!  Something I did not expect to accomplish as soon as I did.

Since I got my bike in June, I've come a really long way and I'm really proud of what I've been able to do and where I've been able to go through biking.

So, there you have it - my top 3 of 2009.  I've had an incredible year, and thanks to some great people, I was able to accomplish some very un-lame things (and, it was hard to pick just 3!) - be on the lookout 2010, I'm on a roll!