Throwing Cookies in 2017

Coming...

I only posted here three times this year, but that was more than I've posted in the past three years, so that's something.

Unfathomably, the blog which has received and continues to receive the most clicks is "How to Heal an Achilles Tendon" from 2013. Somehow over 500,000 people have visited that post.

This year's posts have averaged about 200 visits each with my post about Sloane Stevens' US Championship topping the list. Then, there was my post about Colin Kaepernick taking a knee, followed by my post about marathon training.

going...

I didn't write about the Dodgers making it to the World Series. Their loss to the Astros broke my heart, and reminded me how hard it is to have a horse in the race. It's exciting, but exhausting. Still love my boys in blue, and like every off-season, there is the optimism of waiting until next year.

I've continued to boycott the NFL, and listened with pride as a student-athlete of mine wrote about taking a knee for a speech and debate tournament. Her original oratory took home first place, and hopefully inspired others to reflect on the promises and failures of our nation.

Sloane is sidelined again with a knee injury, but she posts adorable photos of her and boyfriend/soccer star: Jozy Altidore.

And I'm still training and trying to get faster. I posted my best 10K time this past week and am feeling pretty healthy post-holiday (we'll see how I feel after Cabo next week). I'm looking forward to March and running my first LA Marathon with our Students Run LA team.

SRLA Team Emerson! 

And that's about it. Oregon football struggled, but Oregon hoops on both the men's and women's sides looks promising, so I still say, go Ducks.

I also recently learned about Left Wing Fútbol which may change my entire life and perspective on competition. Their unofficial motto is: We change the way we play to change the world, but that can wait for a future blog post. Oh, and following my niece Nicole's basketball career (she's a junior this year) is something I plan to write about in the next year. We will all have to wait to see where she decides to take her talents for college.

Running for Time

My fitness goals last year were to shed the last few pounds of baby-weight from Gabe, and to improve my speed and strength. I wanted to try to do this while writing and reading more, working full-time, and parenting. So, this meant running 2-3 days a week (some days pushing the double-wide stroller) and playing while coaching at work.

Thankfully, Mr. Tarula joined our Sports Academy last year, and he started a running club. We trained a couple of days a week and ran a 10K in Santa Monica this past December. This helped me get more runs in and get my pace down to 9 minute miles.

This year, Mr. Tarula wrote and obtained a Students Run LA grant. This amazing non-profit helps middle and high school students prepare for and run the LA Marathon. Yep, you know what that means: I will be training for my first marathon with a bunch of middle schoolers, and on March 18, I will run 26.2 miles. So, I've been running, trying to get down to an efficient running pace, so that I can complete the marathon this year in 4 hours, 19 minutes (that's just ahead of the time Katherine Switzer, first woman to run the Boston Marathon fifty years ago.)

I've got six more months to train and a team of middle schoolers to help get me there. Strength training and yoga will hopefully help me avoid injury and make me faster and stronger. I'll let you know how this aging athlete, Achilles-repaired late-to-running runner does. Wish us all luck!