Don’t let my lack of posting fool you, I have been a busy girl.  As I looked back at my last post date, I wondered myself what I have been up to. Then I realized, A LOT!

October was a low month for mileage for a couple of reasons. The first was that I was busy traveling. My sneakers went with me thousands of miles and to every major coast and a few stops in between.

First Stop…The Poconos

October kicked off with a quick run in the Poconos, PA. We were there for the big guys for 70.3 Half Ironman.  Not wanting to miss an opportunity to run in fall foliage in PA, I slipped on my running shoes for a quick two miles of hills.  The Poconos knows hills and unfortunately due to the remote location of our resort, I was confined to their parking lot and their entrance with a mamouth incline. Perfect for hill repeats.

Texas Quick Step

Twelve hours after arriving back home, I was on a plane to the great state of Texas for a business trip.  A tight work and travel schedule had me weary, but I was able to squeeze in a bout of sunset speed work one evening.  I was very thankful for an extremely flat terrain. No hills in Houston for sure!

New York State of Mind

I returned home for a week and volunteered at the Team in Training water stop for the Mohawk Hudson River marathon. I was signed up for the full marathon, but I cancelled after I received a last minute bib to the Nike Women’s half marathon. I could not pass up my dream event, nor handle several trips and two major events in 2 weeks.

I opted to volunteer at a water stop. Our water stop won best water stop! I think it was the tutu 😉 I must say, if you run you must take the opportunity to volunteer for a major running event once in your life. It is really an amazing experience to be on the other side of the event.

Team in Training Tutu

California Dreaming

A few days later, I was back on a plane. With two layovers in Chicago, I wish I had a little extra time to claim a run in the great state of Illinois, but I had bigger things to do. I was heading to California for one weekend to do one thing…run my DREAM race, the Nike Women’s Half Marathon. It really was one of the best moments in my entire life!!!

The Empire State

Finally I was back home, in my own comfy bed for a few days. With all my traveling during peak fall, I was convinced I was going to miss the best fall foliage runs. But New York held out and I was home for the best of it. Meanwhile, I was struggling with a horrible pain in my foot.  It was beginning to put a damper on my running. Yet I managed to get in two back to back long runs before it did me in.

Yup, I can squeeze in one more…

Well, somehow the big guy ended up with a bib to the Marine Corp marathon. I did my dream event, why not let him have his dream event, right? So we headed off to D.C. to squeeze in one trip to close out October. Now by this time, my foot hurt so bad, I could barely walk. A trip the morning of our departure to the doc revealed plantar fasciatis. So no running for me, until a visit to the PT when I arrived back. I still brought my lovely pink sneakers and took them on a stroll around the National Mall.

And that my friends concludes October with 50 miles, 5 states and one pair of shoes.

❤ Jennie

PS. I will update this post soon with more details on some of these awesome trips 🙂