I’m out of my funk and ready to get excited about racing again! And this is good news because the Pittsburgh Marathon is less than 3 weeks away! I took some down time after my marathon fail, running whatever, whenever. I was getting the itch to go fast again and completed my first real workout post marathon yesterday. (It was 6x 4:00 on, 2:00 off for anyone interested!)

I’m racing the next 3 weekends and all of my races are special to me for different reasons. This weekend I’m doing a very challenging (think intense hills!) trail half marathon. I’m running this race more like a workout. I’m so excited about this race because I am a bit obsessed with running on trails. I only remember running one trail race and it was at least 7 years ago so this feels like a good way to switch things up and have some fun! I plan on doing a few miles warmup, sort of running it like a tempo run based on feel since the hills, mud, etc will prevent any sort of normal pacing, then finishing with a few miles to make it my long run of the week. I hope to come away with the course record, a good workout for the 13.1 distance, and some cool swag.

The following weekend I will be running the Glass City Half in Toledo, Ohio. I’m excited about this race because it’s close to my hometown and I have quite a few friends running it! Also, the afterparty is a lot of fun! (Yes, runners, you know where to meet me post race!)

And the next weekend is Pittsburgh Marathon weekend! Just 7 months postpartum when I raced last year, I had such an incredible weekend that I told my husband “I will race the half or full here every year forever! How could I miss this?!” I’m excited about this race because it’s on my home turf and I love running in this city! I’m excited about racing faster than last year and tearing up the streets here in Pittsburgh.

I was able to attend a cool event for the Kids of Steel program on the last day in February. It was an indoor training day (free event!) with different fitness stations set up for the kids. As the kids performed different exercises like running races, burpees, core work, egg balancing on a spoon races, hula hooping, etc, they could mark the activities off on their list and go home with a ribbon and some prizes. It was a really special event for the kids and a fun event for me to attend!

Racing with some kids at the Kids of Steel indoor training event. I think I came in last place! :)

My next blog post will be covering the results of my trail half and I’ll talk about how my race week nutrition has changed recently. After some deep thinking and experimentation, I think I’ve finally found foods that sit well in my stomach during race week!

Thanks for following along!