I celebrated my birthday recently and since I haven’t posted for a while, I thought I’d write a recap of my 2022/23 year.

Overall, I’m grateful for all the things that happened this year, both good and bad. I stepped down from WRNY just before my birthday last year. I wanted to take the year to reset and refocus on my family and my recovery. I feel I have achieved those goals but I also ended up doing so much more.

I took 2 unplanned trips to Hong Kong where I visited my mom who had been battling cancer for 2 years and I flew back again a few months later for her funeral.  I am grateful that I got to spend time with her during her last months and I was able to help my sisters with the funeral arrangements.

I had been considering doing a Personal Training Specialist certification to improve my own strength training. When I saw my mom in Dec, she was barely able to walk and needed a lot of assistance. Seeing my mom in that condition gave me extra inspiration and urgency to sign up for the course. I truly believe that everyone can benefit from strength training to extend their quality of life. For now, I want to focus on strength training myself and a few guinea pigs. Eventually, I would like to  work with seniors to help extend their quality of life.

I’m super happy that I’m pretty much recovered from my injury and my running has improved significantly over the past year.  I ran/raced TCS Toronto Waterfront 5k, Chilly Half, Ottawa Half, UA Toronto 10k, Rev & Run 5k, and Superpower 10k.  Tomorrow I will be running Bimbo Global Energy 10k. Next week, I’ll be running Marathon P’tit Train du Nord. I even ran as a guide for a blind runner at the Ottawa half marathon, a goal that I have had since my first full in 2018.

Last year, I ran the Superpower 5k in 27:38 (5:31/km).  This year, I ran the Superpower 10k in 52:08 (5:13/km). Even though it’s still very far from my PB, I’m happy with my progress and I’m excited to see what I’ll be able to do in another year.

Other things I did included leading a major organization announcement at work, grew my run coaching roster, played on a softball team with my husband, and attended each one of my son’s softball games. Wow. Looking back, I’m grateful with everything that happened this year and can’t wait to see what 23/24 has in store!