I haven't blogged all year. In fact, I didn't even finish my 2017 race reports. What happened? I still ran. In fact, I ran several races, and did meet some of my annual running goals. But I also focused on other areas of my life that needed attention. I dropped the ball on some things, and I missed some of my other running goals. Right now I'm not going to write new running goals, because I'm not ready. I will, however, state one broad goal, and that is this: I will post a running-related story once per month in 2019. So, here's the 2018 recap:
My 2018 Goals
- I will lead the 11:00 pace group for CWRC. CWRC is the Columbus Westside Running Club, which I joined after moving to Columbus, and this goal was about the winter/spring training program leading up to spring races. I started this, but I didn't finish. Very early on it became clear to me that I was not in the game mentally and not prepared to lead others on a weekly basis.
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| A January training run with CWRC |
- I will attend three out of four CRC speed workouts each month. CRC is the Columbus Running Company, a local running store chain. The location closest to me offers free weekly speed sessions on Wednesday nights. I did not do this either. I attended some speed workouts, but I had trouble finding my mojo and being consistent.
- I will pace my first marathon. The goal was to pace the Carmel Marathon in Indiana, and I did it. It was very rewarding. As a double-loop course, I had half marathoners who ran with me for the first loop, and full marathoners who ran with me for both loops. I paced two additional marathons in 2018: the Cleveland Marathon and the Marine Corps Marathon.
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| Bringing home my first full marathon pace group at Carmel Marathon (actually, my runners had run ahead in the finish chute and Nilda, who had already finished, ran in with me) |
- I will run in at least 1 new country. I did this. I ran the Reykjavik Marathon in August and had a great time in Iceland.
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| Stopped for an on-course pic in Reykjavik, where the course was beautiful - and windy! |
- I will attempt PRs in the 5K, 10K and Half Marathon. I probably could have done this if I had been consistent with the speed workouts, but I wasn't, and so I didn't.
- I will lock in two World Marathon Majors races for 2019. Well, 50% success. I did get into 2019 Tokyo Marathon through a charity entry. But I was not selected for the London Marathon, my other target. I'll try again for London 2020.
- I will take on my first coaching client. I did not do this, and it should wait until I have my own act together a little better.
2018 Highlights
So, if I missed most of my goals, but still ran a lot of races, what did I do?
- Ran seven marathons, including three that I paced.
- Ran nine half marathons, including three that I paced.
- Ran one 10 miler
- Ran one 15K
- Ran two 10Ks
- Ran one 5 miler
- Ran two 8Ks
- Ran seven 5Ks
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| Meb was on course at the Gasparilla Half Marathon in Tampa in February; I ran all 4 races of the Michelob Ultra Challenge |
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| It was great to see Rachael and Karen for my 3rd running of the Baltimore 10 Miler; it's always hot and hilly, but they have good beer |
2018 was, perhaps, one of my lightest race years in a while. But that's OK. An unwritten goal was to decrease spending on race entries, and that I did.
2019
My first race of 2019 is a trail race this coming weekend, a 20K. My first marathon is the Hong Kong Marathon in February, followed by Tokyo two weeks later. There will be some other events, and I'll try to keep my race schedule on the blog current going forward. We'll see how the year progresses as I get myself sorted out.
Love it! Here's to an even better 2019! 🙌🙌
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