The Year in Review

2009 was my best running year since college. Everything seemed to come together - a lot of that is due to having some great people to train with and this blog probably helped as well - nothing is as motivating as the white hot spotlight of the blog ; )

The place to start are the goals I wrote last January.

1) Run 3,650 miles for the year. I'll end up with ~3,400 miles for the year - so, I missed this by over 250 miles. Of course that's less than a mile a day, so I can't be too upset.

2) Run sub 2:30 at Boston. Again - came up a little short on this one with my 2:32:35. But, given the head wind and tackling the Boston course for the first time - I was again pretty happy.

3) Run 52:30 for 10 miles. I was probably most disappointed with falling so far from this goal. I ran 54:05 at the Army 10 miler. I got a pretty nasty cramp - which probably cost me about 30-40 seconds.

Funnest race: You can't beat Miami in January. A bunch of us went down for the Miami half-marathon last January. The results were somewhat secondary - although my goal was to run marathon pace - and oddly enough I ended up running 1:16:19.

Most disappointing race: Although the Army 10 miler wasn't what I wanted - I was probably most disappointed about the Club Challenge 10 miler. I was sick and just couldn't get moving.

Best new adventure: This would obviously be the JFK 50 miler. I ended up running right around my predicted pace (6:21) - but, I was slower on the Appalachian trail section and faster on the C&O canal path. 50 milers are not going to become a regular part of my running (I don't think I'll do one in 2010) - but, it was a good experience.

Second place Best new adventure: I ran the Great Lakes Relay for the first time - a 10 person three-day relay in northern Michigan. Our team had a great time and ran hard. I'll be doing this race again in 2010.

Wins - Celiacs 10k & Navy 5 miler.

Thanks everybody for your support!