Yes… It’s official- I am now 30. What I have already found out is that it is awesome!

When asked how I would be spending my birthday weekend, it was to no surprise to anyone that I would be filling each day with some sort of run.

To kick off the birthday festivities I met up with my BRF for a easy 5 miles through the local park/zoo. We took things slow and easy as usual. After our run we tried out a local little sushi joint that was awesome!

Saturday is when the real fun started. Bright and early wake up call at 5:30 for the Pemberton Half Marathon. This may have been the coolest little race I have ever done. It was organized by a local runner and it was free! He had it all organized down to two water stops, personalized bibs and even awards for the top few participants! There ended up being 10 of us.

Lacee and I had no real goals for this besides to finish. We had a long run last weekend (13 miles) and that had been the longest we had run in a while.

We stayed together the entire time and chatted about everything as we usually do. We really had no clue where we were- besides being on some back country roads of Wicomico County. We kept a steady pace throughout and stopped and walked for a few minutes as we needed. The course was a nice big loop with water stops around miles 6 and 10.

We suprisingly felt good the entire race and ended up finishing in 2:07 which we were both pumped with considering last week we ran the same distance in 2:30! It’s always amazing what the word “race” can do for your time.

To finish out the weekend of fitness and fun was the Dogfish Dash!

This race is always blast and it was my 4th year running it. In years past it has been either a 5k or a 10k. For the tenth year they wanted to do something different so they changed the distance to an 8k!

The race goes through the quaint little town of Milton and gives out a lot of unique swag. One of my favorite perks of the race is the kleen katen pint cup you get!

Another highlight of the race is seeing Sam- sadly he was not there this year. He owes me big next year- I now have a big fat blank for the 2015 square.

This race sells out fast (like under ten minutes) so be sure to put a big star on April 1st at noon for next year’s Dash taking place on my birthday – September 25th! I can’t wait to celebrate my birthday with my closest 1,000+ runner friends!

So back to the big elephant in the room… Turning 30.

 I have one thing to say about it: bring on the new race age group. Those 30-39 are always dominating and it’s going to be awesome being a part of it now.

Life is all about what you make it and I’m ready to make it awesome! Here’s to the big 3-0!