2019 Recap

Here’s a quick recap of my 2019:

• Family
  • What can I say – it’s been a great year.
  • M is 4 and halfway through her first year of Pre-K. She’s enrolled in Kindergarten (!) for next year. We’ll be finding out in February exactly which school she’ll be going to. She’s also in the middle of her second year of ballet. We’ll see if she keeps this up or moves on to another interest. She’s all girl, loves pink and purple, and I can’t believe she’s almost in school!
  • H is 2 and a complete wrecking ball. He had some surgery this year to remove his adenoids and put tubes in his ears. His hearing seems to have improved and he’s been working hard in speech therapy; he is speaking much more and more clearly. What a joy it is to watch him learn to use his voice and communicate with words. He is fearless (except for dogs) and has a really good mechanical mind – always taking things apart and figuring them out.
  • We added a third this year! M2 is almost 10 months old. He’s the happiest baby, just all smiles all the time. He’s crawling like a champ, pulling himself up onto things, and standing. He talks non-stop and I can’t wait to hear all the things he’s saying. His siblings love him (sometimes a little too much) and he seems to like them too. It will be fun to watch them grow up together and see the bonds that form.
  • X continues to be our rock, our glue, our sanity. I’ll never know how she manages to balance the work of three young kids, a big old house, a job as a nurse, and a husband that’s usually out running somewhere. But she does it with grace and we’re all lucky to have her. She’s always cooking up something new and tasty in the kitchen and figuring out ways to keep our three energetic kiddos busy and engaged. I’d be lost without her.
• Running:
  • Ran 1779.88 miles, according to Garmin – by far my biggest year for mileage. This included:
    • Pittsburgh Marathon – I think this was my third time completing this race. It’s fun and local and even though this year was slow I had a great time
    • Hell Hath No Hurry 50k (my first ultramarathon) – it was so hot and muddy on this day. This is a great event put on by good people with terrific support.
    • Baker Trail Ultrachallenge 50-miler – this was my first 50-miler and I was definitely nervous about this race. Turns out I didn’t need to be. Yes it was the furthest distance I’d ever attempted, but the event is so well-organized and supported that I had nothing to worry about. What a fun day and great way to get my first 50-miler.
    • New York City Marathon – if I’m honest I wasn’t totally jazzed about this race, and my results show it. In fact, I saw my wife and baby at mile 18, stopped and said “I’m done. Let’s walk back to the hotel.” Well, she convinced me to finish and I’m glad I listened. Even though it was my worst marathon performance, it was still a special day. I have a lot of love in my heart for New York, so getting to run this race was great.
    • First Annual Matt’s Birthday Fat Ass Run (where I run my age in miles around a loop in Frick Park. 38 miles this year!) What a blast this was. I ended up doing 38.01 miles around a roughly one mile loop. I had something like 15 different people run with me during the day. My family did a loop with me, my brother did several, one guy even did 30!
  • Hired a running coach to help me be motivated when it comes to doing my workout and also get me doing the things I hate to do: speed workouts, core work, etc. So far it’s been great. If you’re looking for a coach, I highly recommend Sarah Keyes.
  • This was the a bit of a recovery year for me. I’ve been out of the groove of regular running for a couple of years, so 2019 was a year of just getting back to it.
• Work
  • After a great couple of years, I switched employers.
  • My new employment situation is terrific – I’m a W2 employee but 100% work at home. This setup truly suits my personality and I think it will prove to be a long and productive work situation.
• Reading
  • I didn’t read as much as I wanted to this year. According to Goodreads, I finished 11 books:
    • Relentless Forward Progress: A Guide to Running Ultramarathons by Bryon Powell
    • What is the Bible? by Rob Bell
    • Build a Rental Property Empire by Mark Ferguson
    • Sweep: The Story of a Girl and Her Monster by Jonathan Auxier
    • All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
    • Good Talk by Mira Jacob
    • Building Wealth One House at a Time by John W. Schaub
    • Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street by Herman Melville
    • Again to Carthage by John L. Parker Jr.
    • Bad Paper by Jake Halpern
    • Bad Blood by John Carreyrou
  • I’m currently reading maybe a half-dozen books that I hope to finish in the next month or two
• Random:
  • I liquidated and then restarted my collection of T206 baseball cards. I’ll probably spend the rest of my life working on this set.
  • We bought a new (to us) vehicle this year. We traded in our trusty 2012 Subaru Forester for a 2018 Honda Odyssey. The extra space comes in handy with three car seats.
  • I spent a few days in Nashville with some good friends. We have a long-running and very active text chain and try to get together once per year if we can. I saw several of these friends at different points during the year, but it’s rare that all six of us can be in the same place at the same time as we are scattered across the U.S.
  • I’ve continued to play chess (badly). I really enjoy chess and want to be good at it, I just don’t seem to have the time (or don’t make the time, rather) to properly study the game and learn. Maybe someday.