The Year in Review

Yes, it's that time of year. It also happens to coincide with my birthday, so I like to reminisce around now. Here's what my year looked like:

December:
· Celebrated my BD with the BC, H and P with dinner at Verveine (yum).
· Joined a gym before Christmas so that I could start right away when I got back from Montréal.
· Celebrated NYE with the Tri Gang at NW’s place.

January:
· Ran the Hair of the Dog (9K) on New Year’s Day, then went for my first-ever Polar Bear Dip in Lake Ontario. Little did I know that I’d be swimming in the lake quite a bit later that year…
· Weighed in at 185-ish (182 on my old, faulty scale). Started working out with a personal trainer.
· Hired a personal trainer for the first time. She was a bit of a dud – I could have done all that on my own.

February:
· Lost 10 pounds since the start of the year.
· Went tubing for the first time. Nearly froze to death, but had a good time nonetheless.
· Spent yet another Valentine’s Day alone. Went for a swim with my friend IC instead.

March:
· Reached my lowest weight of 168 (on my old scale), which represented a 15-pound loss.

April:
· Went to NYC for the first time (loved it!) with a group of girlfriends to run a half-marathon in Central Park. We walked more than 8K (5 miles) the next day from our hotel in Mid-town all the way down to Soho and Greenwich. It was awesome! Wished I could have stayed an extra day.

May:
· Ran a half marathon with the BC and Jill. It was a great day!
· Ran a PB of 2:10:01 at the Ottawa half marathon with H as my pace bunny

June:
· Had an outstanding workout month, not missing a single scheduled workout.

July:
· Went on a couple of camping trips: Kingston at the beginning of the month and Lake Placid at the end.
· Won my category (Athena 40+) in a Sprint Tri. It poured rain like the dickens that day, but I had a smoking’ fast 7.5K run of 40:42 (5:25/km). The swim and bike were a bit disappointing.
· Smashed the rear window of my car while backing up into a tree with bikes on the back (Doh!).

August:
· Had a PB of 4:24 at the K-Town Tri (took 18 minutes off my time from 2002 and avenged my DNF from 2005).
· Took a road trip on my own to BC to watch IM and sign up for next year. Flew to YVR then drove from there to Kelowna and Penticton. Camped out on my own, even though I pitched my tent on a slight angle the first night (Doh!).

September:
· Had a PB of 38 minutes in the 2K half IM swim. Bonked on the bike, but improved my half-IM run time to 2:20.

October:
· Took a swimming stroke improvement class, which was very beneficial.

November:
· Set a new half marathon PB of 2:09:14 on a hilly, windy course at Angus Glen.
· Bought an outstanding new party dress and stunned a bunch of former colleagues by how good I looked after 12 years.
· Picked the finishes for my new condo (weeee!)
· Recorded my new lowest weight ever (to that point) on November 12: 167.8 lbs. Total lost since January: 17 lbs.
· Bought my new baby, Vroom Hilda!

Yeah, it's been a pretty good year!