Year In Review: 2011

Well, tomorrow is New Year's Day and I'm stuck in that in-between zone where I don't have a clear goal in mind for my next big event. I decided to use today as an opportunity to reflect on my accomplishments in 2011 and then tomorrow will be a day of goal-setting.

First of all, I started this blog on Wednesday, June 15th 2011. Today marks my 146th post and since beginning this blog, I've run 625.86 miles, I rode my bike 144.45 miles, and I swam 14,350+ meters. Documenting my training and having family and friends check in on my progress was a huge help with my training for New York.

I not only ran the New York marathon, I was chosen as a featured runner for ING, won the featured runner contest, and finally broke the 3:10 barrier in the marathon.

I ran other races in 2011 though... several before starting this blog. Here's a list of my 2011 races and results:

4/16/11 - Oz Marathon - 3:19:32
6/5/11 - Minneapolis Marathon - 3:32:38 (We met the Gomers!)
6/11/11 - St. Louis Race For The Cure - 5K - 32:08
7/10/11 - New Town Triathlon - 1,000m Swim (25:31) 20M Bike (59:30) 4M Run (27:51) - 1:57:14
7/24/11 - Opening Act 5K - 20:04 - 7th Place Overall
8/27/11 - United Way 5K - 19:37 - 1st Place Overall
9/18/11 - Millstadt Parks Biathlon - 5M Run (31:41) 22M Bike (1:10:13) - 1:41:54
10/9/11 - BAJA 1/2 Marathon - 1:27:30 - 1st Place Men 30-34
10/22/11 - Harvest Moon 5K - 19:21 - 1st Place Overall
11/6/11 - ING New York Marathon - 3:09:49
11/24/11 - 5K on Turkey Day - 18:49 - 5th Place Overall
12/10/11 - Frostbite Series 3K - 10:59 - 2nd Place Men 30-34

Looking back, that's a pretty packed year! I accomplished a huge goal in New York and I can't imagine a more exciting overall marathon experience. I also crossed three new states off of my list of marathons (Kansas, Minnesota, and New York). I raced a tough triathlon and did my first open-water swim. And I had a lot of fun running, racing, and meeting new people.

Writing this blog was an invaluable motivator and it's been fun looking back on my time leading up to New York. I've decided to keep blogging so I have an ongoing record of my training and my adventures. I plan to change things up a little as far as the blog page itself and I'm going to reset my mileage counter starting tomorrow. I also realised that when I write a post, I think of it as a personal journal. But the longer I've been doing this, the more feedback I get that people follow along and read some of my posts. I've started to think more about my posts as if I'm also writing them for other people to read and not just myself. It's a weird little shift in my thinking, but it will also likely lead to a slight shift in my writing... it will be less about writing to myself and more about writing with the assumption that other people might read my posts. I don't know if that makes sense, but it feels a little different on my end.

So here's to a successful 2011 and a 2012 filled with untapped potential!!!

Saturday
Goal For The Day: Take a look back.
Distance: 0.00 Miles.

Notes: I haven't run at all since Monday. It's a sign that I'm between goals and I need to come up with a plan!

Daily Miles: 0.00 Miles.
Final Blog Totals for 2011:

  Run - 625.86 Miles.
  Bike - 144.45 Miles.
  Swim - 14,350+ meters.