2010 Wrap Up

I have never been one to care too much about New Year's resolutions, but I am one sentimental chick! So I love looking back over previous years and seeing growth or change. And it does inspire me to improve. Isn't there something nice about knowing that you have a fresh start as clean as the world looks with all this white snow outside right now? Sometimes a good "do-over" is all it takes, and it is through looking back that you find out what you were capable of, and that lets you dream about what you can be capable of. So I use my previous races and experiences to set higher goals for myself. After all, it was the great Michelangelo who once said, "The greatest danger for most of us in not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it." And since I like aspiring to great things, looking back over the past year gives me that good baseline for my goals for the coming year.

So here is what I found through looking back at 2010:

• I worked my way back down to a Boston-qualifying time at the Rock 'N' Roll Mardi Gras Marathon in New Orleans, LA on February 28, 2010 (time was 3:35:57).
• I ran my fastest time since having children at the Marshall Marathon in West Virginia on November 7, 2010 (time was 3:29:25) see blog entry here.
• I won three local races: the Monte Sano 5K on September 4 (time 20:40) see blog entry here, the Run Through the Roses 10K in my hometown of Madison on May 1 (time 44:30), and the McKay Hollow Madness trail 1/2 marathon on March 27 (time 2:36:27).
• I tried pacing for the first time at the Rocket City Marathon in Huntsville, AL on December 11 (time 4:12:47 pacer for 4:15 group) see blog entry here.
• I experienced my first DNF in a marathon due to extreme stomach issues and heat exhaustion in the Go! St. Louis Marathon in St. Louis, MO on April 4 (and bravely wrote about it here).
• I ran my first race with my entire family, the Cotton Row Run 1-mile on May 31. It was so fun running with my two-year-old (see here)!
• I found a stranger's running blog and felt connected with similar experiences enough to email her to say "hi." She proceeded to invite me to run with her running group. That runner was Jane, and the group, called the Crazy Girls, has become an awesome and integral part of my training and my life. They are each dear to me and inspirations. They have opened the door to early morning training, the key to my training in this stage of my life. Thank you, friends.
• On a related note to the above, I retired the jogging strollers for all but a handful of runs. The single stroller still gets lots of walks with my daughter inside, and the double gets a few with both. But running while pushing them both is no longer a part of my weekly routine.
• I was chosen to remain on the Fleet Feet Racing team with their newer, stricter qualifications. This has helped me push myself in many ways. It is such an honor to run for Fleet Feet.
• And finally, in March of 2010, I started this blog with this entry. Learning to write about my runs and the experiences related to them is a new challenge for me. I hope it will be something I can look back on, years from now, and be glad I took the time to do this.

2011 will be another year full of running adventures, for sure. So far I plan to run Mountain Mist in January, the Myrtle Beach marathon in February, and the Go! St. Louis marathon in April (getting some revenge from last year's rough encounter). I hope to keep these races near or better than what I was doing last year. And I want to run many familiar local races but maybe try some new ones too. I'd love to get a sub 20-minute 5K and am within roughly 30 seconds of that goal. Not a whole bunch of concrete goals for me yet, but just the overall desire to keep striving and improving. So here's to a year of fresh starts and new goals!