Sitting here, on the precipice of 2019 and looking back on the past several years, I’m feeling like it’s the end not only of a year, but of an era.

I’m not even sure where to start. My brain is fragmented. My heart is broken. It’s been a week. It’s been a year. There are a thousand little pieces of my heart and soul scattered about - fractured, broken, and spilling over. And it’s been hard to muster the energy to pick them back up.

This race is exactly why I’m tired of writing about running. It was yet another terrible race on top of the zillions of terrible races I’ve had over the past few years, with each one actually getting inexplicably worse than the last.

Well, here we are. Training is finished and the race is a few days away. Like every training cycle, things didn’t go according to plan. However, I got through the training - actual training, not some slog trying to masquerade as training. That’s a first in several years. And that alone is an accomplishment and something to celebrate.

Last week was a whirlwind of family visits and holiday fun. I’m still trying to catch up on everything that wasn’t absolutely essential for me to do (like blog posts and commenting). In place of my regular weekly recap, this week I’m recapping the Charleston Turkey Day Run.

It’s been a crazy few weeks around here. Life, running, dog stuff. And I’m tired. And I need to pivot (and please tell me someone other than me got the Friends reference in the title here).

Okay, I admit it. I love Disney. As much as I’ve previously thought it was ridiculous for adults to love Disney, I’m now one of them. And after our recent hurricane evacuation to Orlando/Disney, I think I figured out why (in a rather well, duh moment).

We finally saw some fall weather here in the swampy south. Temps actually dipped into the 50s (lows, highs still in the 70s), so I ended up with some decent runs (finally!).

Sigh. Fall nuttery is in full swing over here. As much as I love this time of year, it’s also so busy.

So, last week wasn’t my most stellar week, and I’m a bit late to the weekly recap party. But I’m still moving along.

Last year, B wore a pretty fun Halloween costume. I was also pretty proud of myself for DIY’ing that thing, so I thought it would be fun to post a tutorial on how you can also do-it-yourself (in case you also have a toddler who insists on being a dinosaur but generally refuses to wear costumes). 

And with that, week four of fall training is complete. Like the gazillion weeks before it, this week was hot and humid, and running was tough.

I don’t even know what to say about this past week. I don’t know if it was allergies, current events, lack of sleep, or a combination of a bunch of things, but I felt awful last week.

This past weekend, I ran the Hope for Haiti 5K Trail Run. This is the 2nd time I ran this race. I ran it back in 2016 (just at the start of what would become a near year long issue with anemia). I was hoping for a better race this time around...then the unexpected happened. 

August through December is without doubt, hands-down my favorite time of the year (even if it does include hurricane season). I'm pretty sure I say this every year on this blog, too. But really, it is.

Fall training may be under way, but it is definitely not feeling even remotely like fall.

Back in May, we traveled to Sunset Beach, NC for the Run Sunset Beach 5K and 1-miler. While the weather on race day was terrible (sideways, torrential rain and crazy wind), the race experience itself was pretty awesome, and I highly recommend Coastal Race Productions races.

This past week, in what’s become an unfortunate annual fall tradition, we evacuated from a hurricane.

That's a wrap on my lollygagging before leaping into fall training. Last week marked the end of rebuilding and the beginning of fall training. It was a weird week, though.

Beach vacations are kind of like camp for grown-ups. Bonfires, arts and crafts, outdoor activities...pretty much the perfect vacation if you ask me.