2008 High's

On to my favorite part--the great parts of the year. It's hard to pare it down to just a few items, so I made a couple of the items run-on's:

#3: The internet phenomenons of blogs and facebook. I started my blog back in March and got onto Facebook in November. Both have been so great for reconnecting with old friends from high school and college and for making new friends that I would have never made otherwise.

#2: A pretty good PR year: From doing my first ever triathlon to running some times I would have never imagined possible. Almost getting under 18:00 in a 5k in May, 35:07 10k at the Great Race, and 1:19 at the Buffalo Creek Half Marathon. Hopefully I didn’t peak and I push my limits even further in 2009.

#1: All the great experiences of places and people on Beth’s various triathlon trips. I’m a geography and sports nut, so I just enjoyed so many things:

- Chicago for Jen Harrison’s triathlon camp in January. We met Jen, had a chance to see where Willow Creek Community Church is, and was reintroduced to Little Caesar’s.

- St. Petersburg for St. Anthony’s in April. Seeing the Tampa Bay, seeing spring training facilities and Tropicana Field, visiting the University of South Florida campus, …

- Columbia, Maryland in May. I get to see my sister and my mom joins us for the trip. Also, I jumped a fence that day.

- Black Bear Triathlon in Lehighton, PA in June. I now know where Lehighton and Jim Thorpe are. We saw Maija again and had a birthday lunch for Beth at Red Robin.

- Philadelphia Triathlon in June– Hanging out in downtown Philly. Who knew a place as beautiful as Fairmont Park could exist in a place like Philly? It was such a beautiful setting. We hung out with Maija (again!!) and Lindsey Zemba and her boyfriend and Kim and Kyle.

- NYC Triathlon in July– I was overwhelmed going into it, but really loved the city and the layout of the streets. Driving past the Meadowlands, staying in Secaucus, going through the Lincoln Tunnel, Central Park, the great lunch at Teleon Café (162 W 56th St), seeing Maija (again!!!), and seeing Beth’s really good friend MB who lives outside of Pittsburgh but was on her way home from France visiting some people in NYC. This is also where my mom signed me up for a raffle and I won a free pair of racing flats.

- Back to Steelhead in Michigan in August. Pretty drive, pretty Lake Michigan. Unfortunately, Beth had a bad day and the 10-foot waves really scared me, but we had a good time relaxing on the beach the day after the race. (Do I always squint in pictures like this?!?!?)

-SheRox in Charlotte in September– A quick little weekend excursion down I-77. Beth won the race! We had a chance to drive past Davidson, see downtown Charlotte and the Carolina Panther’s Stadium (whatever it’s called now)

- BOUS in Tempe in October – We had a chance to see my aunt, my parents made the trip out, we made lots of new friends going out to dinner with them at MacAyo’s Mexican Restaurant, I saw a friend (and wife & kid) from high school who lives out in Chandler, and I took this awesome picture that I now have as my background on my laptop.

-Also throw in trips to Altoona for Minor League Baseball, Shippensburg for the State Track Meet, Hershey for the State Cross Country meet, and PNC Park for All you can eat seats!

So this is where 2008 ends and where 2009 picks up. I hope everybody has a great New Year's Celebration and a great start o 2009. Go PSU!