2015 - Year In Review

I want to take a moment and review 2015. This has been an amazing year. With my first 2 marathons, in addition to my berry first marathon that I ran in December 2014, I qualified for the Marathon Maniacs at the beginning of March. A short time later, in May, I then qualified for the Half Fanatics and became a Double Agent!

There were many ups and downs for me this year. For the first 5 months of the year I was steadily logging over 100 miles a month and running up to 4 days a week. Come June, I found myself burnt out and my desire to run was seriously lagging and lacking. I was so discouraged that I was having this issue. But I had over trained and simply needed a break.

In 2015, I have run:
° 4 marathons
° 4 half marathons (was supposed to be 5 but 1 got canceled due to weather)
° 8 5k's (but I walked 3 of them due to injury)
° 1 10 mile
° 2 10k's
° 1 5 mile

Needless to say, it was a busy year for me. According to my running log that I keep, I ran 882.32 miles in 2015! I had a goal of running 1200 miles in 2015, but between injury and burn out, that just didn't happen and I'm okay with that.

When I realized I was burnt out, I decided to take a break from running. My running friend, Kirsten, suggested 2 months off, so that's what I was aiming for. After the 2 months were over, I started running again. A week into running again, I stepped off a curb that I didn't realize was there and sprained and fractured my ankle. I was then in a walking boot for over 6 weeks. So, almost 4 months later, I finally got to run again...with only 5 weeks to try and be as ready as I could be for my 4th marathon. Eek! But I did it, I ran the marathon in South Padre and it didn't suck! It wasn't even my slowest marathon like I had thought it would be.

In 2015, I went for my first trail runs, or maybe I should call them "off road" runs to distinguish them from the many, many runs I've done on highly manicured and maintained city park trails. The first was when I was in Oregon visiting. My brother recommended the Peavy Auditorium and it was great, even had some adrenaline rush moments as I ended up running through some active logging areas. Super scary!

My out of state run for 2015 was the Rock 'n' Roll Portland Half Marathon. It was fantastic! Portland is such a beautiful city. As we ran through the city, I decided that on one of my Oregon trips, I want to run the Portland Marathon. On my list is also the Eugene Marathon.

I ran 4 marathons in 2015. I ran the Austin Marathon, the Army Marathon, the South Padre Island Marathon (an inaugural event), and the Rock 'n' Roll San Antonio Marathon. When I ran San Antonio, I scored myself an accidental PR by a minute and 29 seconds!

When I ran the South Padre Island Marathon, I was spurred into action to get what I consider my first running related tattoo.  I got a paraphrased JFK quote: “We choose to do these things not because they are easy but because they are hard.”  Why do I consider this a running related tattoo?  Simple.  If running were easy, everyone would do it.  Sure, running has its easy moments, but it’s mostly hard.  When I ran SPI against all odds and it didn’t suck, I was super emotional and wanted nothing more than to have that quote tattooed on me.

Overall, 2015 was an amazing year for me in the running world...despite the injury and all the down time from running I ended up taking. I really wouldn't change anything if I could.

How was 2015 for you?  What goals did you achieve?