2013: The year that was

When I woke up this morning, at 7 a.m. – on purpose! – I was reminded of the me 14 years ago. The first day of the new millennium had me an unhealthy, unhappy, hungover mess. I was overweight, I was miserable, Dear Diabetes and me were not frienemies, we were full on enemies, I had no motivation to run, let alone take on any kind of exercise, and the thought of a child undertow had me cowering under a blanket.

Fast forward 14 years, and my goodness, how far I’ve come. I’m a wife. I’m a mom. I’m a runner. I’m a rockstar diabetic. I’m happy. So freaking happy. My life, I am proud to boast, just keeps getting better and better 😀

So, I figured I’d celebrate with a morning run and a year’s reflection.

NEW YEAR’S DAY RUN:

• 10 a.m. BG before: 4.9
• Carbs: granola bar (14g) no bolus
• Temp. basal: -30%
• Time: 28:23
• Distance: 5.07 km
• Average pace: 5:36 min/km
• 11 a.m. BG after: 3.1 🙁

2013 wasn’t a traveling year, it wasn’t a life-changing year, but it was a running, training, racing, kick my previous PBs in the butt kind of year.

This is the year that was:

This was the year that one of my most favourite people in the whole wide world became my most trusted coach.

Photos sourced from Coach NZ’s website at www.revolutionzcoaching.com

This was the year I made a proper running comeback after pregnancy, starting out slow, easy, no gadgets, no pressure, but that quickly grew into pressure, good pressure, great pressure, get my legs moving FAST pressure.

This was the year I set running goals, a lot of running goals – training goals, racing goals, finishing goals.

This was the year I embraced strength training (at the forceful arm twisting of Coach NZ), regularly torturing my abs with silly things like planks, squats, yoga ball pushups, a mixed bag of crunches, and more – so much more – all to make me a stronger, more efficient, faster runner.

This was the year that THIS also happened 😀

This was the year I developed a hate-hate, er, I mean, love-hate relationship with speed intervals, and a few times even surprised myself with the repeats I pulled off.

This was the year I fell in love with 4:30 and 5 a.m. runs. (Seriously, who am I???)

This was the year I finally smashed my previous 10 km PB, achieved two years earlier, and peed my pants in the process!

This was the year I also (unofficially) achieved my racing season goal and cracked sub two hours in a half marathon – no peeing, but a damned train trying to foil my speedy efforts!

This was the year my running and diabetes became famous. More on that in another post 😀

This was the year that my husband once again, 5,000 times over, supported me in every endeavour I took on. The year my beautiful boy became my bestest cheerleader. The year that was the foundation for the greatness that will be 2014.

May 2013: My first Mother’s Day. My first fondo.

Happy New Year!