2017: A Year in Review - Author favorites and reader favorites
So apparently it's kinda a thing to do a round-up post at the end of the year with your most popular posts. I don't know if it's humble-bragging or if it's to check the pulse of the blog and go, "wait a second...you all liked THESE posts?! Dang it, I'm in the wrong niche" or what, but it sounds fun so let's do this! Except I'm picky, so I'm going to first give you MY top favorite posts of 2017, and then we'll poll the audience and see how we do. Kinda like "The Newlyweds Game" but as blogger vs. audience! Who's ready for some round-ups?!
North Raleigh park offers easy hiking on primitive trails with lake views
I was going through the backlog of hikes I planned on posting on the blog, and I was shocked to discover that I did this Durant Nature Preserve hike in September! I am seriously that behind on posts, and I'm also amazed at how quickly this fall has disappeared.I met my dad early one morning in September for a Sunday stroll in Durant Nature Preserve in north Raleigh. I'd seen signs for it off Capital Boulevard every time I went to to the WRAL soccer park complex, and finally curiosity got the best of me and I decided to check it out.
1 mile. 4 cookies. 4 glasses of milk.
Well, I have officially blown my running streak. The goal was to run a mile every day from Thanksgiving to New Year's Day, but something about the Holiday Mile did me in. The concept is simple: 1 mile, 4 cookies, 4 glasses of milk. You start the race by gobbling down a glass of milk and a cookie, and then you run a quarter mile. Stop, eat a cook and drink a glass of milk, run a quarter mile, repeat until the mile is done. The holiday mile will either make you or break you...and it definitely broke me!
Two miles. Uphill. In the snow. Both directions.
Okay, so that was a more accurate description of my hike this weekend rather than my run, but it's pretty close. This weekend McCrae and I escaped to his aunt and uncle's mountain cabin outside Sparta, NC. We had an...adventurous...time getting up to the cabin via the Blue Ridge Parkway (which was closed) and private roads (which were gated and locked) and icy vertical drives (which apparently popped one of our tires), but we made it and we spent 4 days in the cabin together and didn't want to kill each other (#romancegoals) Of course, mountain cabin vacation or not I had a running streak to maintain! So I did an out-and-back down the private gravel road to the cabin.
An unhappy reindeer and recap of November 2017 goals
Poor Ryder. My poor fluffy-butt-pupperkins has the hard job of being a model when I want to play with the camera and do silly things. Like put plaid reindeer antlers on the dog and drape him in holiday lights. People always say I have a photogenic dog but it's because I bribe him with lots and lots of treats. Treats and running and hiking and snuggles. Wait, no, he doesn't like snuggles, even though I keep telling him you can't spell "SMOTHER" without "MOTHER." He said he still doesn't believe me, but he'll smile for the camera if I give him more Greenies.
What do you say when you haven't been blogging in a while?
Possibly the hardest blog post is the one that comes after a period of silence. Was it writer's block? I'd argue no because I still have been writing *something* but just not posting. I'm not the type of person who forces herself to write if I'm not ready, but usually just staring at a blank page with a pen in my hand is sufficient enough inspiration, although what I write about may not be exactly relevant. And so, derailed and uninspired, I have been struggling with guilt and inertia.
Wordless Wednesday - all photos.
5 mile leg of Raleigh marathon relay with Oiselle teammates
I have officially completed a full marathon event! Well, with a little help from my teammates. I met up with my NC Oiselle Volee teammates on Sunday morning for the City of Oaks marathon relay in Raleigh, with 26.2 miles split across four runners. We had five teams running so it was quite a crowd, with plenty of snacks and selfies.
