tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-82479346828257922622026-04-07T02:54:12.274-04:00Manhattan twenty-something who became the youngest woman to run a marathon in all fifty states, while still enjoying her margaritas. Sometimes simultaneously.Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17100746061554733157noreply@blogger.comBlogger1024125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8247934682825792262.post-89823686377310787982013-09-01T10:47:00.002-04:002013-09-01T10:47:17.888-04:00

If you are reading this, you're still subscribed to my old defunct RSS feed and have missed several months of great posts. Boo :( But it's easily fixed! Hop on over to 50by25.com to check out my new look, and re-subscribe in your feed reader of choice to http://www.50by25.com/feed. Thanks for reading!

Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17100746061554733157noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8247934682825792262.post-21742854671632831762013-05-13T05:39:00.000-04:002013-05-13T05:39:00.180-04:00

Hi everyone! I've finally overhauled my blog with a slightly-less-college-y theme. Yay! (But don't worry, there will still be plenty of drinking.) I've also migrated to using Wordpress instead of Blogger, so while my URL is still 50by25.com, I now have a snazzy new look. Go check it out! Unfortunately, if you're reading this, then you're reaching my posts through an RSS feed is pointing to my

Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17100746061554733157noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8247934682825792262.post-16454742638450018622013-05-04T18:33:00.001-04:002013-05-04T18:36:28.710-04:00

I spent yesterday afternoon exploring the historic El Morro in Puerto Rico with Amanda and her husband David. View from inside the massive 70 acre fort Spanish workers began building the citadel in 1539 in order to defend the port of San Juan and restrict access to the Caribbean, but it wasn't completed for more than 250 years! Amanda and I both marveled at what a long construction period

Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17100746061554733157noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8247934682825792262.post-11311657133792735862013-05-03T22:24:00.000-04:002013-05-03T22:24:26.664-04:00

When I arrived in Nashville, I quickly dropped my stuff off at the hotel but then immediately headed to the expo. I remembered long lines from last year, when I went in the vening, and hoped to avoid these by going in the afternoon instead. Bingo! It worked, and I walked right in and had my bib within about 10 minutes. I took advantage of the extra time I now had to explore the vendors, which

Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17100746061554733157noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8247934682825792262.post-52852040324066814302013-05-01T13:31:00.001-04:002013-05-01T16:07:20.796-04:00

Okay, so it's now been two weeks (and a whole 'nother marathon!) since I ran Big D Texas Marathon on April 14. I wanted to post my race report the next day, but that happened to be the day of the Boston Marathon - and that was when I stopped thinking even a little bit about the race I had run and just started following the news nonstop. When I did think about the race, I couldn't believe the

Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17100746061554733157noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8247934682825792262.post-14956701439807971292013-04-24T19:08:00.000-04:002013-04-24T19:14:16.477-04:00

Remember when a bag of my stuff got stolen a few weeks ago? In addition to my jewelry, that included a whole bunch of running gear as well. I've been working with the hotel and the police to figure out what happened to all my stuff, but I've pretty much realized that it's gone forever and I really ought to start the process of replacing it. On the running front, that means finding some new

Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17100746061554733157noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8247934682825792262.post-48557342725621347092013-04-23T23:57:00.000-04:002013-04-24T15:01:17.930-04:00

This morning while getting ready for work, I got to listen to a really interesting video. (Yes, listen not watch; this is the price I pay for multitasking, but I figure listening is better than not getting the content at all.) Two of my favorite productivity/lifehacking gurus, Tim Ferriss and Leo Babauta, got together to discuss goal-setting and whether it's a help or a hindrance. When I first

Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17100746061554733157noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8247934682825792262.post-16140695574860663762013-04-21T16:38:00.003-04:002013-04-21T16:38:53.312-04:00

This weekend, I headed down to Philly for a fantastic bachelorette weekend for my friend Kelly. Although Kelly and I both went to NYU for college and lived in the same dorm freshman year, we didn't meet until we started our first post-college job and were in the same analyst start group. We immediately clicked though, and decided to live together a year later. Kel has since moved from New York to

Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17100746061554733157noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8247934682825792262.post-86625031062689086462013-04-19T18:49:00.000-04:002013-04-28T09:50:24.736-04:00

So remember how I decided to do Insanity? It was in part because a friend invited me and in part to save money, but it was also partially because I remembered it being OMGTHEHARDESTWORKOUTEVER and I thought it would whip me into insane shape. Instead, I found out that I'm apparently already in much better shape than I thought I was - and that maybe it's not right for me after all. The first

Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17100746061554733157noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8247934682825792262.post-9788229334172243572013-04-16T17:07:00.001-04:002013-04-19T17:36:13.369-04:00

I'm not yet ready to write - let alone post - about my marathon on Sunday. The course was 1.5 miles long due to an error in turns at the start, and I planned to write about how I was "outraged" at how the organizers screwed it up. But really, outrage over running a few extra miles? Runners at the Boston finish line voluntarily ran 1.5 extra miles to Mass General to donate blood. And many of us

Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17100746061554733157noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8247934682825792262.post-6405706928383121932013-04-15T19:00:00.002-04:002013-05-01T12:33:23.039-04:00

I've pretty much been shaking all afternoon since I heard the news about Boston. While I didn't break from work to watch the actual race, this hit me hard enough that I immediately canceled my meetings, headed for a break room, and turned up the volume on CBS' live coverage. There was limited camera footage of what happened (or at least, limited relevant footage vs aftermath?) so CBS kept this

Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17100746061554733157noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8247934682825792262.post-38835534041335569542013-04-11T21:34:00.001-04:002013-04-11T21:34:10.942-04:00

Over 2.5 weeks ago, on March 23, I ran a trail marathon... but I've been super slow about actually writing my race report. I suppose that's fitting, though, since it also took me forever to run the darn thing! Without further ado, let's jump right in... I wanted to stay in Dallas for the weekend of Savor the Symphony, and Blake pointed out that the RnR Dallas Half was the same weekend. However,

Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17100746061554733157noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8247934682825792262.post-43607574245705924182013-04-07T23:50:00.000-04:002013-04-08T10:31:24.102-04:00

This weekend was really a slam dunk. First, I headed home from Dallas early on Thursday in order to meet up with a team of analysts I was coaching for a work extracurricular. In short, the analyst teams were tasked with coming up with a way to improve our firm - and after the first round cuts brought the teams down to five, each team in the finals got to present their ideas to the most senior

Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17100746061554733157noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8247934682825792262.post-39178648861833717962013-04-01T15:23:00.001-04:002013-04-01T15:23:07.233-04:00

Yesterday was officially the end of my March fashion challenge, and it couldn't have come at a better time. Last night, I had a minor meltdown while packing for the week. It sounds so silly, I know, but I could just not find anything that I thought looked okay together. One of the biggest things I've learned from my month of focusing on fashion is that accessories are key, and since I'm pretty

Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17100746061554733157noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8247934682825792262.post-92083563806330260292013-03-31T19:35:00.001-04:002013-03-31T19:43:49.054-04:00

Despite it being almost April, this afternoon I felt a bit of a chill in the air due to some impending rain - and I found myself desperately craving clam chowder. Clam chowder is usually a pretty unhealthy dish, thanks to the potatoes and heavy cream, but I have a ton of Chobani Greek yogurt in the fridge - surely that could be used to thicken it? I drew inspiration from about a dozen online

Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17100746061554733157noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8247934682825792262.post-75997139851812906282013-03-30T17:15:00.002-04:002013-05-01T12:33:40.777-04:00

On Wednesday night, while going to pack up for my Thursday flight home, I made an upsetting discovery: an entire bag of my stuff was missing! The New Balance shopping bag that I had been using as a catch-all for a lot of miscellany had been in the living room of my hotel suite, but now it was nowhere to be found. Inside that bag was my Garmin, my fuel belt, some other running apparel, a few pairs

Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17100746061554733157noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8247934682825792262.post-30965523302032692542013-03-27T21:01:00.001-04:002013-04-11T12:36:42.186-04:00

A few weeks ago, Feetures generously offered me their compression socks to review. I was quite intrigued - I've never tried compression socks, but have heard a ton from other runners and scientific research that they really help performance and recovery. Still, I warned Feetures that they'd be subject to my standard review policy: I won't promise to post a positive review, but would write my

Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17100746061554733157noreply@blogger.com82tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8247934682825792262.post-35066665821890223602013-03-24T10:27:00.000-04:002013-03-24T10:27:01.467-04:00

Last night was the Elan Circle's annual Savor the Symphony charity event, held at the Adolphus Hotel in Dallas. Since my friend Blake chairs the event and spends a lot of time planning an organizing, I've been hearing about it forever, and so planned to stick around Dallas for the weekend in order to attend. It was just luck that I found a marathon to run yesterday while I was in town (more on

Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17100746061554733157noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8247934682825792262.post-4018172045733936882013-03-22T18:36:00.001-04:002013-03-23T18:00:02.792-04:00

Last night, I was invited to a special event: the launch of the new "Psyche" series of sports bras at New Balance Dallas. This new collection of sports bras is based on the premise that no two women are built the same, and it's designed to have different contours for each style and offer lots of adjustments to customize the fit. What I expected to be your run-of-the-mill product reveal turned

Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17100746061554733157noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8247934682825792262.post-34497374299191292232013-03-19T18:43:00.001-04:002013-03-19T18:53:22.787-04:00

A friend is hoping to launch a new fitness studio in NYC later this fall. I'm not going to say too much about the concept, since that's really his news, but it's completely different than anything I've seen in NYC so far. I'm really excited for it to open, and will definitely keep you posted on details! Since my schedule is crazy busy with travel and he's pretty busy as well, for our next catch

Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17100746061554733157noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8247934682825792262.post-33757397316561872442013-03-18T20:46:00.003-04:002013-03-19T12:40:48.953-04:00

Unlike Sevilla, my night before the race in DC was practically perfect. My flights to DC from Dallas went smoothly, including upgrades to first class so I could stretch out, and I even had time to grab some oatmeal in the Delta SkyClub on my layover in Cincinatti. I arrived in DC midday, hungry for lunch, and after meeting up with Theodora, I picked up a falafel wrap for lunch at a nearby food

Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17100746061554733157noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8247934682825792262.post-68588279086757159942013-03-15T12:59:00.002-04:002013-04-17T20:33:08.017-04:00

March has been a VERY expensive month so far, and it's mostly thanks to my appearance challenge. I have been online shopping like crazy, trying to round out the things that I am learning are missing from my closet. There are a lot of things that I just plain never thought to buy (um, nice leather boots and skinny jeans? Oops), and while I've been mostly trying to find stuff that's on sale, it all

Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17100746061554733157noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8247934682825792262.post-33354969972469115152013-03-11T17:10:00.001-04:002013-03-11T17:10:38.242-04:00

On Sunday, I was invited through my partnership with Fitmapped to check out a brand new studio - Revolve. It's a spinning studio that offers a few different takes on spin classes. One is hill-focused ("Real Ride"), one incorporates some weights and stretching ("Body Ride"), and one is supposed to be over an hour long and incredibly intense ("Rip Ride"). So, Sunday morning found me dashing out the

Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17100746061554733157noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8247934682825792262.post-89827460979113983062013-03-09T16:11:00.000-05:002013-03-09T16:31:19.708-05:00

This morning, I did a Refine Method class at 9:30am, then headed out to run a loop of Central Park with my friend Steph afterward. Having only fueled for all that exercise with a bowl of steel cut oatmeal topped with a spoonful of Trader Joe's Cookie Butter, I was famished when I got home, and wanted pretty much everything I could possibly think of. The result? This mish-mosh recipe, which

Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17100746061554733157noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8247934682825792262.post-79180261559031687302013-03-08T15:04:00.001-05:002013-03-09T07:53:12.732-05:00

I've recently become a total podcast addict. I listen while I'm getting ready in the morning (which is still only 20-30 minutes despite my new focus on my appearance), I listen while I'm driving (in Dallas), and I listen when I'm walking/taking the subway (in NYC). I've been plowing through podcasts like crazy, but lucky for me, one of my favorites has quite a library of archives - the Jillian

Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17100746061554733157noreply@blogger.com6