Planes, Trains, and Running Shoes

My family doesn't really celebrate Thanksgiving. A few times, in college, I went home with friends who had "proper American Thanksgivings" and it was always kind of weird to me...the whole stuff-your-face-with-turkey-and-say-what-you're-thankful-for thing just never really resounded with me. This year is a little bit different though. This year has been kind of tough and I feel like when things get rough is when you should take the most time to reflect on what's really great in your life because if you can't do that, things will start to get really bad.

I let that happen this summer and I got whipped back into shape real fast.

So this year, I want to really take a minute to share some of the things I'm thankful for...the things that have made the tough times this year just a little bit easier to handle.


I'm thankful that I have an income. It may not be doing what I love and it may not be the greatest, but I'm saving money and that's going to lead to bigger and better things for next year.

I'm thankful that my family was ok after Hurricane Sandy. We all had some pretty significant damage but no one was hurt and I'm grateful for that. It was a scary night when the hurricane hit and I'm happy that everyone was ok.

I'm thankful for The Pilot. He has been so unbelievably amazing this year. From coming to my races to taking care of me when I'm sick/injured to whisking me away to Paris to making every possible arrangement in his work schedule to get time off when I need/want him to to just getting it...I'm so unbelievably lucky to have him.


I'm thankful for friends...new and old. Friendships change and I learned that the hard way this year...but I've made some amazing friends this year and rekindled old relationships and I'm grateful to have so many amazing people in my life.

I'm thankful for running. It keeps me sane. Training for the New York City Marathon kept me together this summer. Even when New York fell through, I'm so lucky to have been able to run Richmond with such an amazing group of girls. Part of me misses training already I'm really happy to have the next few months off to not have an Excel sheet to go off and just get back to the basics of running before my next training cycle begins.


I'm thankful for my mom. She's the most amazing woman I know. From popping over to Madrid to support me in my race to just being the most incredible mom, I'm so lucky to have her. If I can ever be half the mom to my own kids that my mom has been to me, I'll be a damn good mother.