2011 Recap and 2012 Plans

In 2011 I ran 4 Marathons!

March: Virginia Beach Marathon

May: Cleveland Marathon

September: Presque Isle in Erie, PA

November: Marshall West Virginia

Each Marathon brought it's own challenge. I ran Virginia coming off a week long stomach bug and was so excited to set a new PR at my second marathon. Cleveland was the perfect marathon and will probably be the "easiest" for a long time. I wish they could all feel that good. Erie was a bad race : ( I started getting focused on breaking 4 hours and had a major meltdown when it did not happen. I could have had a bigger PR but let my emotions get the best of me. West Virginia was great and I loved running again! So close to that sub with a major PR of 4:03:00.

I only ran three 5Ks this year since I was focusing more on long runs and trying to save money on race fees. I do not see myself going back and doing lots of 5Ks anytime soon. They are fun but cost $15-$25 and I can easily save $200 by not doing all the 5Ks around here. I did do 2 of my favorites plus one with my family this past year.

May: Jennie Carol 5K

July: Buffalo Trace 5K

August: Railroad Days 5K

I will always run the Jennie Carol race since it is where I started running and this year I had a big goal for that race; break 24 minutes and I did! 23:30! I ran Buffalo trace with my mom and stepdad so that was a great race to be out there with them. Last, the best 5K around because it is fast... Railroad days where I broke 23 minutes!

In October I was on a team of 12 that ran in the Bourbon Chase relay. Hands down one of the best experiences I have EVER had. There are no words to describe how much fun our team had doing this race. There was nothing fast or speedy about it but we had fun being runners.

I ended the year with some great family time and less time "training". I have still been running and working out but I do not have a "plan" that I am on for the moment. I did some extra cross training, bike and even swam a few days. I am not one to make big resolutions and will not do it this year. We all know our shortcomings and know what we need to do to fix them. I am going to steal 2 goals from Racing with Babies and Redonkulous Runner...

#1: Stop having FOMO (fear of missing out). My race calendar is MY race calendar. I make it based on my goals, my needs and my schedule. I can NOT race every race I hear of and I need to focus on my training needs. Races will happen again the next year and it is not possible to race every race out there.

#2 Stop having food guilts. I am not vegan, gluten free, raw dieter, organic eater or even healthy for the most part. I eat what I eat and it is what it is. Another area of known shortcoming that I can work on but I will not feel guilty for them. I will run my 14 plus miles on the weekend and eat my cupcake with zero guilt : )

The rest of my goals will come from here..... The 2012 Race Calendar!!!

January: training

February: training

March: Publix Georgia Marathon on March 18th

April: Derby Festival Marathon on April 28th

May: Jennie Carol Memorial 5K on May 12th

June: Training

July: These are tentative and not set in stone due to the challenge level

July 14th Grandfather Mountain Marathon

July 22nd Pirate Triathlon at Fairport Harbor Lake Park

August: Railroad Days 5K (date not set)

September: Bourbon Chase on September 28th and 29th

October: Tough Mudder in Mayesville, KY on October 21st

November: training

December: St. Jude Marathon in Memphis, TN on December 1st

Rocket City Marathon in Huntsville, Alabama (hopefully on December 8th; date not set)

I have worked on this A LOT and this seems like the best fit for me personally. It gives me 5 more states and 10 total at the end of the year. I wanted "12 by 2012" but I can not find 2 more races in 2 more states that are within driving distance. I want to do Bourbon Chase and ToughMudder so that cancelled out some races. But I will have 19 more years to get in the next 40 states so I think I can make that work!

The Grandfather Mountain marathon is ONLY if I can get Monica to go with me since there is weird lodging and I want someone to almost die with as we "run" AKA power walk up a mountain for 6 hours. Since I have some extra training time this summer that will not be consumed with marathon training I am going to attempt to get into one of the local gyms and swim for 6-8 weeks. IF I am feeling ready I am going to do the above mentioned Tri. Monica is planning on that one as well so it will make it easier in terms of travel. These are the two races that I am not set on.

Obviously cross training and strength training are two of my goals since I am going to be doing more than just running this year.

I am going to set my ticker at 1,500 miles since I easily ran 1, 000 miles this past year and I think I can manage the 1,500 miles next year. I am going to end this year just shy of 1,300 miles.

I still want my sub 4 marathon and will always have that on my brain. I have not picked a race for it to happen because we all know each marathon brings it's own challenges and I just need to train hard and see what race conditions are. It will NOT happen at the mountain marathon!

I have enjoyed reading all of the other recaps out there and can not wait to see where everyone else is racing in 2012. I am so excited to meet some other bloggers in Atlanta and would love for some people to put the Derby marathon on their agenda.