Happy New Year!
In each of my previous years’ recaps — 2013, 2014, and 2015 — I usually talk about all the wonderful places we’ve traveled, PRs I’ve run, and the 1,000+ miles I’ve run for the year. 2016 was different – it was the year of family. Josh and I welcomed our baby girl to the world in July. While many would like to forget 2016 and believe me, there are definitely parts of the year that were challenging, however, it will always be one of the most memorable years of my life.
—We started the year living in Connecticut and the announcement of our pregnancy. I tried to recap the pregnancy throughout the trimesters as transparently as possible without scaring away all readers! You can catch up on that here if you’re interested — 1st trimester, 2nd trimester, 36 week recap, and initial postpartum thoughts.
—We traveled to Southern California shortly after that and enjoyed our trip very much in Los Angeles and San Diego. A couple of weeks after that we went to Atlanta to celebrate my brother in law’s wedding. The last remaining trip before the arrival of the baby was to Providence to cheer on Coach Brian as he ran his 50th state marathon.
—We moved back to Hoboken in May. While this meant leaving my job, ending our lease early, and switching doctors late in the pregnancy, this was ultimately the right move for us. We’re happily settled back now and look forward to sharing more of our Hoboken favorites with our little one in the upcoming year.
—On the running front, the longest distance I raced in 2016 was 10 miles. I ran 4 races pregnant and 4 postpartum. Total mileage for the year was slightly under 300.
—And most importantly, 2016 is the year that I became a mom!
Cheers to a wonderful 2016 and a memorable 2017!
We came back last night from a quick less than 24 hour trip to Providence, Rhode Island and it was a blast! Josh and I went on a road trip with running friends, Julio, Tania, and their baby to see Coach Brian run his 
Afterwards we checked into our hotel at the 
The next morning, Josh and I grabbed an early breakfast at 6:30AM before the 5K start. I had an english muffin with berries which was perfect and Josh ate waffles, eggs, and berries. We got back to the hotel room, finished getting ready and walked over to the start. The weather was breezy and overcast, but perfect running weather. The start area was easy, casual, and there were a ton of porta potties which are extremely important to me at 7 months pregnant! By 8:25AM, we were off. Though I’m convinced Josh could have run the race faster than me, we ended up running it together. My bladder was not enjoying the baby and the movement so we made a pit stop around 1.25 miles in (I have a feeling this is the beginning of my running bladder challenges for the next couple of months). The course was scenic, relatively flat, but quite confusing about turnaround points since the full, half, and 5K all shared the same first and last 1.5 miles. I was really hoping that we would finish last but didn’t look like I was able to achieve my goal. Our finish time was a little over 42 minutes.
We grabbed water and went back to the hotel to put on some dry and warmer clothes before heading back out to meet Tania and see Julio finish the half. There’s something to be said about small town races — we were able to cheer about 150 meters from the finish and could have run part of the race and even the finish with the runners if we wanted to. When Julio finished, we met back up to prepare for Brian’s big appearance. The race tracking is not as robust as some of the larger city races but we were able to estimate using the Find My Friends app that he was running faster than anticipated and knew when he was approaching. He looked very strong and on pace for a 
After Brian passed, we immediately walked over to the finish area and caught up with him and his friends celebrating. Brian completed his 
