Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Our Christmas was pretty low key, but it was relaxing and the weather was PERFECTION for running!

On Christmas Eve, my mom and I went on a short 4-miler in the evening to check out all the holiday lights. Temps were in the high 50s, and we were both wearing shorts. On December 24th.

(We were lit up like Christmas trees ourselves between the headlamps and reflective vests.)

This weather is weird and glorious and I want more of it. I didn’t even care it wasn’t a white Christmas! Please, just keep the 50+ degree days coming!

The next day, we all slept into a leisurely time before settling in with some coffee to open presents. Santa must be a runner because he certainly brought us plenty of running gear this year! I’m talking compression socks and sleeves, running tops and tights, and a bunch of new books on running. Good picks Santa, I’m pretty darn psyched about all of it!

We had a delicious Christmas breakfast of French Toast, thanks to my dad (resident breakfast chef), and then after waiting a few hours to digest, my mom and I headed out on another Christmas run. She did hills, and I went off and ran 6.7 miles at 8:32/mile. There were so many people out enjoying the beautiful day, running and walking. I could seriously get used to this type of winter (Of course, by typing this, I’m probably setting us up for a blizzard next weekend).

That evening, we continued to celebrate by officially taking a big step towards one of our 2016 goals – qualifying to run the Boston Marathon in 2017. Yep, we are officially registered for our spring marathon – the Delaware Marathon on May 8th. We also signed up for our next half marathon – the Augusta University Half Marathon on February 28th. I’m thrilled to already have 2 states planned out for 2016!

I know training through the winter for Delaware will pose challenges, but I definitely feel ready for them. 2015 was a fantastic year of running for me (I’m planning a yearly recap post for later this week), and I could not be more excited for 2016. I came across this quote recently (on a school billboard while I was on a run actually!), and it really spoke to me.

I can’t wait to start writing 2016.

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas! Were you able to get outdoors to enjoy the warm temps? Any big plans for New Years?