I haven’t felt like writing/blogging/stream of consciounessing for a while. I’ve been kind of bummed about how long recovery is taking me. My legs haven’t felt “good” in quite some time, and I’ve been battling just a twinge of post tib tendinitis (Thanks, Leah Sawyer for the help with that!) I have barely averaged 20 miles a week (until last week), and this really affected my mental/emotional state. I think I need at least 40 miles a week to feel good and like a normal person. So, to get me out of my funk, and since it’s the end of the year, I decided to compile a list of my running/racing/RD’ing bests from each month this year. And with the bests must come the worsts, right?
JANUARY
Best: RunWILD Tour of Trails begins (still time to sign up for NRC‘s 2016 training! #shamelessplug); running Bearwaller Gap for first time
Worst: Having to DNS Mountain Mist 50K
FEBRUARY
Best: Black Warrior 50K (sub-5 hr); fun runs in the snow
Worst: The Ice Storm postponing Dry Creek
MARCH
Best: Taking the RunWILD group down to River Gorge (come run it with us this year!)
Worst: March was pretty good . . . so I guess it’d have to be the soreness from RunWILD’s St. Patty’s Day “Hill Repeats”? 😉
APRIL
Best: Boston – experience (being there with my mom, the race environment, seeing Bree in Boston obvs) and marathon PR; meeting Sage Canaday
Worst: April was pretty good month . . .
MAY
Best: Strolling Jim suffer fest; Running at Frozen Head for the first time

Pre-Strolling Jim ass kicking w/ Jobie
Worst: the day after Strolling Jim. I couldn’t leave my house because stairs must descended to do so.
JUNE
Best: Running in the big boy mountains of Idaho and solidifying my love of the West
Worst: DNF-ing River of No Return 108K where the big boy mountains chewed me up and spit me out. Not even Little Red Riding Hood could get my ass in a good enough space to continue that race.
JULY
Best: Pulling the trigger on signing up for a 100; Bowie Park race having record numbers
Worst: Pulling the trigger on signing up for a 100; losing my key on the Bowie course and spending hours “sunbathing” in the parking lot waiting for help
AUGUST
Best: RunWILD: Hot, Wet, & Wild started; knocked out my annual 5K @ Tomato
Worst: hardcore face-planting at Beaman during our first RunWILD run from which I still have the scarred up knees
SEPTEMBER
Best: Running in Chamonix (and London, Paris, Cinque Terre, and Rome); I’ve wanted to live and just run in the mountains ever since I went westward last year, but running here really made me fall in love. #movemetoColoradoorBendASAP
Worst: Leaving Chamonix
OCTOBER
Best: Defeated Creek — this was my baby race of the year. Thankful to NRC and others (Phil, Duane) who helped me bring this to fruition in just the way I/We envisioned when setting foot out there for the first time. Having such a big group at StumpJump; Mini Tour de Rouge (when we doing 10, Jeff and Jobie?)

StumpJump bathroom pic
Worst: The nerves prepping for Pinhoti
NOVEMBER
Best: Pinhoti 100 — probably the highlight of the year for me; Riverside Screw, duh.
Worst: Recovery from Pinhoti; post race “blues” –> always hard to deal with for me no matter the race but extra bad for this one #WhyGodMadeBeer
DECEMBER
Best: Wrapping up a decent first year as RD with Peeler park; focusing on running with my own pups; slowly getting mileage up
Worst: Loss of fitness and speed from taking a little too much recovery
So, that’s my pretty boring yet incredibly self-indulgent Best/Worst of Running for 2015.
Stay tuned for my Goals for 2016 which is sure to be riveting.