I can’t believe that its 2012 already you guys. I’m so excited that its finally here though! The last couple of weeks have been crazy fun. I ran my first “race” workout at BU Mini Meet on the 17th. It was my first mixed gender race, I ran 4:58 and beat all but three men in the race. Girl power. It was such a special day, not only was it the start to my professional racing schedule, but three of the most important women in my life were there, my girlfriend Karolina, my best friend Cydney and my mommy! The meet took for-ever, but as my biggest fans they were supportive as always. I love you guys a million times over! Seeing as how I had on bright purple racing flats, hot pink compression socks and Duke blue spandex shorts on, I’m glad they were proud to claim knowing me in general.
The following weekend began an unforgettable Christmas trip to ICELAND with Karolina’s family. A lot of people have been asking me, “how was it?!” so I’ll start by showing you:
Just walking home from the gym and, oh hey beautiful mountain across the fjord, whatcha doing over there? Looking spectacular. Keep in mind I was only able to take pictures for about 3 hours a day, due to the winter solstice – so waking up what felt like 2am was actually 10:30am. Nuts. The scenery, when I could see it, absolutely blew my mind. And surprisingly, the weather was just like Boston, except a bit more windy since we were right on the Atlantic Ocean in Reykjavik.
This picture is taken in Akureyri (north central Iceland), after leaving our cabin located on the side of a mountain and on our way to go see Godafoss, a waterfall which is usually flowing but looked super cool frozen:
After spending a week there I can tell you something you already could guess, Iceland is amazing. As an explorer of different cultures and all things awesome, I make it a point to try everything I can get my hands on. My favorite (and first thing I tried) is Skyr.is Drykkur. Its a smoothie made from Icelandic yogurt, I probably had at least one every single day. If you can tell me where to find this in the states I would do a backflip.
I also had and seized the opportunity to try shark, lamb, pork, saltwater cod, haddock, puffin, rice pudding, malt og applesin (a delicious combo of orange soda and malt beverage), and a variety of heavenly breads, cheeses and coffees. YUM. Massive shout out to Karolina for translating tons of conversations for me. An even bigger one to her parents for sharing with me the incredible, breathtaking and beautiful Iceland they grew up in.
If you’re holding onto your seats (unlikely) for what I did to bring in the new year, you can relax. I fell asleep at 11:44pm haha. After months of either having visitors or going somewhere, and not to mention being jet lagged, it was nice to finally have some peace and quiet 
I’m thoroughly impressed by those of you who were willing to brave the cold in cute outfits and 2012 sunglasses.
Make this January a good one!