The 2010 Christmas Card Letter

I could tell you all that blogging more is one of my 2011 New Year's Resolutions, but that may be a lie, so I won't go there.  I would not mind writing a little more here and there, but mostly I've been too busy to do it.  I think Facebook also eliminates the need to retell everything about my life here.  I do enjoy writing though, so maybe I will get to it a tiny bit more than I have been recently.  No promises though :-)

It is crazy 2010 is already coming to an end, but we also said that about 2009, 2008, 2007, and on and on and on.  With that being said, I am excited about the prospect of 2011, a new year.  I like new beginnings.  Granted, I got a pretty huge new beginning mid-July, but I still look to January 1 as a fresh start of some sort (maybe fresh start of aiming to fit into my pants if nothing else!).  I have a good feeling about 2011.  It is going to be a good year.

Because I haven't blogged much this year, I have been thinking lately about writing some sort of year-in-review post.  So here goes:

• The start of 2010 was pretty uneventful.  Well, I did fall off a mountain bike in a state park and managed to bang my elbow on the only concrete in the whole park.  That was pretty fun.
• Kelly came in to run the Houston Marathon.  I, once again, ran the half;  she, once again, told the full marathon who is boss.  She qualified for Boston with a 3:38 time.  It is pretty cool when our families come together - all or part of them - as we have been doing since we were both in diapers.



Kelly and I after the Houston Marathon

• I ran my 6th Austin Full or Half Marathon on my 29th Birthday weekend.
• I was in love with someone who did not feel the same way, and subsequently had my heart broken into pieces.
• After above said event, I had to trust that God did in fact answer the prayers I had prayed every night for 16 months, just not the way I had originally envisioned.
• I went on a "try new things" campaign - part of creating or finding the identity I had most likely lost sight of over the past few years.
• In late February I joined a church for the first time since I left Beaumont for college.
• I saw more live music in 2010 than I probably have in the previous several years combined - Bruce Robison several times, Radney Foster, Kelly Willis with my parents, Lyle Lovett and his Large Band (wow - that one gets its own mention below too), Bruce and Kelly at Christmas, Train, Bob Schneider, Randy Rogers Band, and who knows who else.  I had a blast and hope to see even more in 2011.
• My friendships with two girls in particular in Houston grew deeper and I am so thankful for that.
• I baked.  A lot.

• I also learned the hard way that talking on the phone while baking carrot cake cupcakes isn't always the best idea.



Can you tell which batch I forgot to put carrots in?

• I almost threw my very expensive pink guru bike into the gulf during the Lonestar Half Ironman in Galveston.  Needless to say that race did not go like I had hoped.  Aside from the actual race, I had a wonderful weekend in Galveston and my good friend Melissa came to spend the night and cheer me on.  Markell stayed in our room too and we basically ended up looking/sounding like a teenie bopper slumber party and it was awesome!
• Kelly and I got to walk our moms across the finish line of their first half marathon on May 2, 2010 in Beaumont.  We could not have been more proud.  Mrs. Clark even took first place in her age group and my mom took third in hers.



Mom, Me, Kelly, Mrs. Clark before the Gush Half Marathon

• I woke up early one morning in May and thought to myself "hey, I have always said I'd move to Austin in a heartbeat.  What the hell am I waiting for?"
• I woke up the next morning and thought "What the hell are you thinking?  You can't just up and leave Houston - you've been here 6 years.  That's way too scary."
• I woke up having more mornings like the former than the latter an ultimately put my resume out in Austin.  This was obviously the biggest part of my "try new things" campaign.
• I went to San Diego to see Kelly.  Our transportation the entire weekend was beach cruisers.  How cool is that?
• I had two job interviews in Austin on the same day in late June.  I had a job offer the next day and put in 2.5 weeks notice at Camden the day after that.  Wow.  Talk about scary.
• I almost had a meltdown in Fiona's strength class the afternoon I accepted my offer and considered unaccepting my offer.
• I found a place to live on about 2 weeks notice, and funny enough, I'm now living at an apartment complex I lived in my junior year of college!
• On July 18, 2010, I moved to Austin.  Thanks Mom for the help.
• I had a part-time roommate for several weekends after I moved to Austin.  I think having one of my closest Houston friends around during that transition made it not so overwhelming.
• Maggie lead the way for the Austin tri community to roll out the red carpet when I arrived in Austin.  I literally walked into 10+ instant friends, who I know would bend over backwards to help if ever needed.



Vegas, Rhonda, Katy, Jane, Anna, Maggie, Me, Erin, Alisa, Sally

• Within a month of moving to Austin, I did two of the hardest bike rides I've ever done.  Wow.  I'm still traumatized.  I might just not need to do those again next year.  At least one of them ended with a nice tube float trip down the Guadalupe.  A few months later I ran the hardest run (terrain-wise) and hardest half marathon I've ever done.  I guess the word "challenging" is a good one when it comes to training and racing in Austin.
• At the end of August, I got to be there to cheer on and watch my best friend in the whole world cross the line of her first Ironman. I finally understand what my family goes through each time they are at one of my races - I've been a spectator/volunteer for a few big races, but never when someone so close to me is racing.
• 
  I raced in my first nighttime trail race.  It started at 7pm at Muleshoe Bend on Lake Travis and was an 18.6 mile race.  After about an hour (when we lost any hint of sunlight), the event was better named "night hike" than a "race", but we had a blast and finished a whopping 5.5 hours after we started.



Me, Maggie, Catharine, Natalie, Alisa, and Kim at the 30k start

• I spent a day in San Antonio playing Mom - soccer games, quick car changes, ballet rehearsals, hair buns, visits to the toy store, and who knows what else.  Oh yes, this was also the day Bennett interrogated me about my past relationships and declared that we should go for a walk in the street to find me a new boyfriend.  I told her she could go on a walk and find me one.  I'm still waiting.

• I got to do two different races with my niece Molly.  Quite selfishly, I think having another family member excited in stuff that I am is so fun.  I'm so proud of her too - she even placed third in her age group at the Decker 5k (after nearly getting blown over, in her words)!  Elizabeth and I have high hopes for Kate to run Cross Country too next year, but we're not sure she's exactly on board with us on that idea.





Molly and I before Decker Half/5k

• I traveled to Louisville, Cincinnati, Tuscaloosa, Atlanta, Columbus, GA, Des Moines, Lincoln, NE, Billings, Oklahoma City, Nashville, and Houston for work.
• I went on an adventure with myself in Billings, driving the Bluetooth Highway into Wyoming.  Yes, I was by myself, but that didn't stop me (I'm proud of that), and I had one fabulous afternoon.




11,000' and snow!

• I ran along the Chattahoochee River, the Yellowstone River, and in Piedmont Park in Atlanta.
• I spent a little too long in a candy store in Red Lodge, MT.  I'm still dreaming about that store.



Alllll candy!

• I drove through a scene out of Twister between Des Moines and Lincoln.  I'm happy to be alive typing about it.



Nice little storm with 90mph winds

• Mom, Dad, and I traveled to Myrtle Beach for the Halfmax National Championships.  The swim got cancelled, I pr'd the bike and the run, and had one of my lowest overall placements ever :-)



Robin and I at Halfmax

• I decided that wasn't enough and signed up for another half ironman in Conroe in early November.  I had a great time traveling with Maggie and Alisa and then got to have some fun with Kim while in town, but the race itself was quite awful!
• I got a new "gig" as the Pure Austin Coaching Team Coordinator.  I joined PAC the first week I was in Austin and I couldn't be happier with Shawn, the head coach, and everyone involved.

• I spent more time with my nieces during the last half of 2010 than ever before.  We had all 8 members of our family under the same roof at least three different weekends in the last two months of the year.  Fitting us all under my roof is a bit of a geometry equation, but it all works out:






I kind of like having this little angel on my bedroom floor on her little napmat!

• I got to watch Kate be the best dead mouse ever in the Nutcracker.
• I got to hear about Molly's team winning her district cross country meet - and that they won it because she sucked it up and ran with a broken arm.
• I got to deliver Molly to her surprise 13th birthday party.

• I got to introduce a few Austin triathletes to the Light Saber.

• I had people try to set me up with guys in Houston not once, but twice.  After I moved to Austin.  Thank you - I really do appreciate the thought, but I'm here now, not there, and don't really have any plans to move back there anytime soon.
• I got to spend an evening with Bennett that didn't start out so great, but ended quite nicely!


• I saw probably the best show I've seen: Lyle Lovett and his Large Band at the Paramount Theater on Congress Avenue.  Don't like Lyle?  Don't know his music really?  Doesn't matter.  Must. Go. See. It.  The show had something for everyone and blended bluegrass and soul in ways you won't ever hear elsewhere.
• I had a whirlwind Austin to San Antonio to Boerne to Austin to Waco to Austin to San Antonio to Austin Thanksgiving weekend.  It was full of family and I would not have wanted it any other way.
• I get to run my long Saturday runs now with an old friend from Beaumont - she was two years ahead of me in school growing up and we did ballet together.  We can talk for miles about stuff no one else even begins to care about!
• I ran around downtown Austin in a red dress with 250+ of my closest friends (male and female) on the 5th Annual Red Dress 12 Bars of Christmas Run.  I made it to four.  I was very proud I made it that far.

• I've run the Barton Creek Greenbelt trails behind my apartment several times...most of the times I've intended to run the same route, but I do not think I've run the same route yet!  I've been lost and found quite a few times and I enjoy getting a little lost there.  I feel like I have the world's biggest backyard.




• I got to run through the 37th Street Christmas Lights with several of my new Austin buds.  We did have a hard time feeling the spirit as it felt like 80 Houston degrees while we were out running.

• I spent Christmas in San Antonio and Boerne with our immediate family and my brother-in-law's family.  They are pretty awesome.  The girls got to spend both Thanksgiving and Christmas with all four grandparents around the table.  That is rare.
• I spent many of the last few days of the year at home in Beaumont.  It was the first time I'd been there since June.  We got to celebrate Mom's birthday while I was there, so that was good.
• Two little letters, p and r, are creeping their way back into my running vocabulary, for the first time since early 2008.
• Those two little letters are probably creeping their way back in because four ugly letters, p, o, t, and s, are hopefully creeping their way out of my vocabulary.
• Found lots of new music/bands I like; two in particular that definitely need mention: Turnpike Troubadours and Band of Heathens.  I'm also really enjoying Mumford and Sons and Ryan Bingham - some of you may have actually heard of them though, as opposed to the first two.
• I went to dinner with Jimmy after Christmas and thoroughly enjoyed catching up.  Jimmy was my waterskier boyfriend when I was a freshman in college.  He was a senior in high school.  I lived in an all girls dorm where boys weren't allowed.  He lived at home.  I think our parents both liked the arrangement.
• I am ending the year with a somewhat heavy heart - with someone I've known my entire life and someone I've never met both on my mind.  My grandmother just is not doing well.  It is awful.  I do not have any answers and the fact that she is just dying a little (or a lot) day by day is awful.  Sarah, whose blog I came across a few months ago, is younger than me and we've never met.  She has cancer.  Cancer sucks.  Please pray for both Grandmother and Sarah.