2012 Recap

Running-wise, 2012 wasn't exactly the year I'd hoped for.  I spent quite a bit of time in physical therapy and various doctor's offices, ran a couple of really bad races, and got my first (and second) DNS.  But I accomplished a few things, too.  I finished fourteen races: four 5Ks, one 5 miler, two 10Ks, three half marathons, one full marathon, two 200 mile team relays, one obstacle course mud run.  I ran 882 miles, cycled 154 miles, and swam 6 miles (at least according to daily mile).  I bought a bike, signed up for a swim class, and met a bunch of amazing runners.

Just for fun, let's see how I did against a few of my 2012 goals:

Run a sub-4:45 marathon: Not quite.  But I did run one more and set a new PR by over 17 minutes.  This one is staying on the list.

Run a sub-2:00 half marathon: Epic fail.  The half was not my race this year.  Ran a solid race at Disney in February, finishing in 2:11:04 during the hardest stretch of marathon training, but had two miserable 2:30+ finishes over the summer in some very hot conditions.  Two hours may have been a bit ambitious, but I'll keep working on it.

Compete in a long-distance relay: WIN!  I actually did two of these: Reach the Beach MA in May and Reach the Beach NH in September, and both were amazing experiences.  So proud of my Pretty (Speedy) in Pink girls for our second place finish in our rookie year!

Compete in a sprint triathlon: Nope.  But I did buy a road bike and take a triathlon swim class, so I'm working on it.

Strength train at least two times a week: Nope.  But I did go to a bunch of physical therapy strength sessions!

Cardio cross train at least once a week: Once a week, no.  But I did mix things up a bit with some real cycling and swimming workouts.

Listen to my body: Getting there.  I still did too much injured running, but I also made the extremely difficult decision to sit out this year's Chicago Marathon.

Maintain a social life: WIN!  I won't elaborate on this one :)

Get my masters degree: FAIL.  Still have those incomplete papers to write ...

Make consistent progress on my dissertation: I don't know about consistent, but I did finally defend a prospectus, so we'll count it.

Back tomorrow with my goals for 2013!

Holiday 5K Recaps

Finished off the year with three holiday 5Ks -- the North Shore Turkey Trot on Nov 22, the Cambridge Winter Classic on Dec 9. and the Somerville Jingle Bell Run on Dec 16.  Given my lack of running this fall, all three went much better than expected.

             Turkey Trot     Winter Classic     Jingle Bell
Mile 1:              8:36                    8:53              9:05
Mile 2:              9:26                    9:11              9:18
Mile 3:              9:51                    9:09              9:14
Total:              29:15                  28:32            28:55

Note: splits from my GPS watch, total times are official

North Shore Turkey Trot:
Given my lack of training this fall, my only goal for this one was to run a sub-30 and not make myself feel awful for the rest of Thanksgiving.  Katie was trying to beat her 28:27 PR from the Pumpkins in the Park 5K a few weeks earlier, but said she was going to start off a little slower and pick up the pace, so I decided to start with her and hang on as long as I could.  Apparently we have different ideas of "a little slower than 9:10 pace" because we started out running somewhere in the 8:00-8:15 range and I let her drop me around the 1 mile mark, which I reached in well under 9 minutes.  Things fell apart from there (with some help from a not-exactly-flat course), but I still finished in a pretty reasonable 29:15.

SWAG

Ready to rock and roll

Killer B's back in action

Post-race goodie bag

Mini apple pie = best Thanksgiving breakfast ever

Cambridge Winter Classic:
No photos from this one.  Oops. Still a fun morning and one of my better race performances of the year.  I woke up to a headache, off stomach, and dead legs (from Saturday's tough swim workout), but I stuck with it for an almost evenly paced race, which was also my fastest 5K since September of last year.  And followed it up with an awesome brunch at Tavern in Central Square.

Somerville Jingle Bell Run:
Despite spending most of the previous night's dinner party blaming the hosts what I was sure would be my slowest 5K ever thanks to their massive quantities of delicious food and beverages, this run was surprisingly pleasant.  Jogged a two mile warmup from the Kennedy School (where I had to drop off graded final exams, of course) to Davis Square, ran a pretty even, not too slow 5K, and then jogged a mile back to Porter Square where I warmed up with some Starbucks caramel apple cider and did a little Christmas shopping at Marathon Spots in Porter Square (including a new running vest for myself, which came in handy for the rest of the walk home).  All-in-all not a bad Sunday morning!

My green shirt was totally lame compared to the festive costumes people came up with