theSmudge.com

Another year has come to a close, somehow. It went so fast, and suddenly here we are at another winter Olympics. Either I’m old or the world is spinning faster. (No comments from the peanut gallery.) Anyway, because this was a pretty great year for my running world, here’s a bulleted list of those milestones. Because, you know, the world needs another “this is what I ran last year” blog post.

1. Ran a total of 1,401.91 miles. This beat my previous best year (1,244.2 miles in 2011) by 157.71 miles. Yes, I track to the nearest hundredth. Yes, I am a nerd. Yes, I’m pretty happy about that running total, especially since the last couple months were well below average.

   

2. Beat my fastest marathon time not just once but TWICE this year. I’m still not sure how I pulled off a 3:47 on a hilly course, but that’s OK.

   

3. Beat my fastest half-marathon time — also not once but twice this year. I didn’t expect to run a 1:45; I guess you could say this was a surprising PR (personal record) year. I also unofficially PR’d the 10k during the first half of this race.

   

4. Beat my 5k time, and squeezed under 23 minutes with less than half a second to spare. I actually think I could run faster if my leg was cooperating, but I’m not about to complain at this point.

   

5. Ran my first ultra. I didn’t blog about this, which I regret, but here is my running buddy Kristen’s race report. She and I started running together a year ago, and she’s had a big positive impact on my running life. We wound up running the whole Way Too Cool 50k (31.2 miles) together, finishing in 6:25, which was 20 minutes faster than I expected.

   

6. Ran my first trail marathon, where friends including Deanne greeted me at the finish. They also had Kona Brewing Co. beer at the finish, so it was pretty much the best day ever. (Bonus: views of the Golden Gate Bridge.)

   

7. Logged my highest month of running (169.7 in August 2013) and my highest week of running (48.49 miles, also in August 2013).

   

8. Ran more marathons than in any other year (six). I also doubled my marathon country count (to a grand total of, um, two), and reached my 10th state in which I’ve run a marathon.

   

So, yeah, it was a good year in running. It ended on a deflating note, though, because my right IT band has been unhappy since mid-October. I was able to run through it while trying to rehab it, but the pesky thing gradually got worse. Because 2013’s race results gave me so much excitement and determination, I’m currently desperately hoping my leg gets back on track soon. I have 2014 goals to reach!