Looking Back to 2011

It's been a great year and I feel like I took advantage of a good portion of the opportunities that I was offered. I didn't meet all of my goals, the big one was to qualify for Boston. But I still had a lot of fun, I trained hard, and had a few accomplishments and experiences that will change my life forever. I call that a win!

It's been an extremely mild winter to end the year, but looking back, we certainly didn't start off that way.

Snowed in! Feb. 2, 2011

Luckily, just a couple of weeks later the temperatures warmed up enough that I was able to run in shorts for the awesome Psycho Wyco Trail Run. The hills and trails for this run are pretty insane, you can read my race report here but this picture below pretty much sums up how I felt.

One of the most challenging yet fun races that I have done!

Looking back now, I had forgotten how strong I was running. In March I was able to sharpen my skills a bit at the Frisco High Line Half Marathon. It was a huge PR for me finishing in 1 hour and 34 minutes. The interesting thing about this race is that we ran it in the middle of a thunderstorm and I couldn't believe that they didn't postpone it or call it off. I also had the pleasure of meeting awesome Dailymilers David and Jon. 

Next up was the the Fargo Marathon in May. I had really trained hard for this and should have crushed it. Going back through my training log it looks like I just didn't fuel properly. I really should have finished this one much faster than I did. I was really disappointed in my performance at the time but I really think I can make some improvements this year just by remembering to fuel properly through the race an not falling behind on hydration either.

My letdown in Fargo had me lost for a little while, not knowing what I wanted to do next. In June I decided that I would dip my toe into the triathlon end of the pool. I had considered the triathlon many times but swimming is what always held me back. Teaching myself to swim through YouTube videos and an online coach was not the greatest thing in the world. But it got me started. My first triathlon was the Crossroads Triathlon in Cameron, MO. I am not sure that you can really classify it as a Sprint Tri, maybe a mini sprint. It was a 200 meter swim, 8 mile bike, and 2.1 mile run. The swim was a joke, not at the time, but I can really laugh at it now. As embarrassing as the swim was, I still managed to finish first in my age group and 16th overall. 

My next tri was the Panther Pride Tri in Iowa Falls, IA. I was a little smarter when I registered for this one and was right where I needed to be for the swim. It still wasn't easy, but I didn't get run over like I did in my first one. This time I finished 2nd in my age group and 8th overall.

Then came the big day, the Hy-Vee Tri. This is an olympic distance which means a 1500 meter open water swim, a 40K bike, and a 10K run. The swim was a long slow nightmare in which I was super thankful that God must have been watching over me because the water temperature had dropped enough overnight that I was able to wear a wet suit. The right and the run were pretty solid. No fancy pants age group awards on this one though.

Since the Hy-Vee Tri I really haven't done much. I ran a little local 2.1 mile race and then the Vets Day 4 mile trail run in Kansas City.

I finished 2011 off with an 11 mile run and I am hoping to start 2012 off with a 12 mile run. I am fighting some plantar fasciitis which left me hobbling after yesterday's run. I had 1,807 miles of training for the year with 1,337 of those being running. This was down 116 running miles from 2010. 

My goals this year are to break into the ultra world and run the Ice Age 50K in May and if all goes well look at a 50 miler in the fall (I am open to suggestions on this one). I may even sprinkle a marathon or two somewhere in between just for fun.

With the new year upon us and all of those non-running types giving you grief over your love, just keep this in mind.

"To live is the rarest thing in the world. 

Most people exist, that is all." 

- Oscar Wilde