Year in Review

Time: 31,546:52 mins.
Distance: 4,496.27 miles
Average: 84.18 miles per week

Damn, I just set the mileage bar for 2011 pretty high.

I can without a doubt say that 2010 was a banner year for consistency in racing and training. I never pushed the threshold too much which is how I was able to stay relatively healthy during the year. I only had three weeks that I would consider truly poor. Back in late February and early March my achilles gave me some troubles as I trained for a spring marathon. It's funny as I type this now my achilles is again giving me some troubles, but that's life when you're a runner.

In terms of racing, I ran two marathons that were both personal bests. I PR'd at the Tobacco Road Marathon by 2 seconds in finishing with a 2:27:17 and most recently I lowered that best to 2:24:46 at the Thunder Road Marathon. I ran the Racefest Half Marathon in 71:52 finishing second to Ryan Bender. The half distance is one that I'm not a fan because it's like a 10k but over twice as far. My first half marathon was painful and this wasn't much better. I think I'd rather run a marathon instead.

I also ran two 10 milers. The first took place a day after my half marathon at the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler which I finished in 53:36. It wasn't my best showing at the fatigue from the half and drive to DC left me with little for the race. The other was the Folly Beach 10 Miler which I completed in 51:35. The course may have been a little short, but I was pleased with the effort nonetheless.

I ran a couple 10k races that weren't anything to write home about and a bunch of 5ks. I would bore myself and definitely the readers if I were to find notes on all of those. I'm also too lazy to go back and look for all of the RFYL GPx races. I'm bummed that the only time I went under 15:00 for 5k was on the track at one of the all comers meets. I really wanted to crack that barrier at some point. My best opportunity came in Providence, RI at the CVS Downtown 5k where I finished in 15:01.

The running highlight of the year other than my two marathons would definitely be the Izumo Ekiden in Japan. I had the pleasure of visiting the country for the third time this year and competing again. I somewhat redeemed myself this year from last year's embarrassment of a stage leg. The team had a blast and related nicely to one another. We also got to go on a run with Brett Larner of Japan Running News.

I can't finish without mentioning the great group of runners here in Charlotte. I made many great connections throughout the city all year long. It's been exciting watching the Charlotte Running Club grow and seeing attendance at weekend runs increase. It's been great working with the local stores like Charlotte Running Co., RFYL, TrySports, Inside-Out Sports, Omega Sports and Fleet Feet Huntersville this year. Twenty-ten was sweet, but here's to next year...