Hello 2015

Well this blog has been about 30 days in the making and for whatever reason it's been very difficult to pull together something worthy of summarizing my year.  There have been amazing highs and extremely frustrating lows but in the end I accomplished all I set out to do and then some.  

Boston was by far the pinnacle with my family there cheering me on to a PR and a BQ -5 for 2015.  I followed that with a series of 5Ks, 10Ks, a half marathon, the Blue Ridge Relay, and another BQ for 2016 at the Richmond marathon.  I've really cut down on my mileage  since then giving my plantar fasciitis some time to heal but so far the proverbial vampire bite of running is still sucking my blood.  And my dog ate my PF sleeve last week so that didn't help either...

I finished 2014 with 1,976 miles for the year and gave a passing thought to pushing it to 2,000 miles but I just didn't have it in me.  I'm tired, beat up, cranky, and at the moment - sleepy.  Despite my current state of grumpiness I'm very encouraged by the progress I've made in the past few years and I have yet to see or hear anything to change my opinion that my best running days are still ahead of me.  

Next year I have one primary goal and everything else is a distance second  -- I want running to be fun again.  It sounds simple and maybe even cliché but despite the steady stream of running pictures and status updates on my Facebook page the past 4 months just haven't been all that enjoyable.  I'm extremely blessed and grateful for the year that was but I wasn't able to completely appreciate how far I've come until I was forced into more of a spectator role while resting and recovering from some nagging injuries.

I ran a 5K with my youngest son back in November.  It was one of the very few times that I had gone into a race with no expectations.  I wasn't nervous, I didn't care who was running the 5K or the 10K because I wasn't trying to internalize where I might finish and I spent more time than usual chatting it up with the other runners.  My son and I took our places towards the back of the back to avoid getting trampled but close enough to the middle for him to feel the competition around him.  For the next 34 minutes we would run while others encouraged us and we encouraged others.  I took pictures, made videos, and otherwise probably drove him nuts.  We were amongst runners that for the most part had no chance of winning an age group award yet most were just as determined and pushing themselves just as hard as the lead pack and I was having a blast.  And somehow my bedroom wall is now adorned with one lone bib number.  Not his room mind you, but mine.  And yes it's been there for 6 weeks now because I don't have the heart to take it down.

That started 6 weeks of reflection that really changed my outlook for next year.  Watching these runners celebrate their individual successes whether it was a PR or simply finishing the race reminded me of a time not too long ago when running wasn't nearly as easy and the pressure I put on myself wasn't nearly as great.  It also reinforced the notion that there are elite runners that do this for a living and those that run for scholarship money then there are the rest of us.  And the rest of us are really only separated by a few minutes and varying degrees of ridiculous egos. 

Lately I've been reading more and following other runners....what motivates them, how they train, what they eat, etc.  I read Born to Run which I highly recommend and while I don't plan to head to the Copper Canyons anytime soon or start running barefooted I definitely plan to do more trail running next year.  In 2012 when I decided to get serious about running again I started with running trails.  I knew my conditioning was far from where I wanted it to be and didn't want to be discouraged by the clock so heading into the woods just made sense.  Most of the races weren't local so I just showed up, ran, and went home - simple as that.

I still have my personal goals and I believe that once I start having fun again the personal achievement will come.  I want to qualify for the New York Marathon and I think a sub 3:00 marathon is well within my reach.  I know it won't come easy but nothing worth reaching for ever does and it might even require a little patience which I generally suck at.  But God willing I'm not going anywhere soon so why not reach for the moon and spend a few more months to get there, right?  

When I think back on the many great moments I experienced in 2014 my personal bests all occurred when I was able to share them with someone else - either my family was there or my running friends were matching me stride for stride.  Running fast is a great high but sharing success with others is so much more rewarding.  My year was amazing thanks in large part to many of you that run with me and against me as well as those of you that motivate, encourage, and inspire me.  Some of you know who you are but most of you don't.  Next year as I'm getting back to having fun I plan to make sure you all know just how much I appreciate you.  I haven't entirely figured out how to do that but I'll come up with something in the next 365 days :)

Happy New Year!