2016 In Review

What a year!  It’s amazing how fast time goes by, I feel like this year just flew by.

I’ve had a fabulous year, running and traveling all over.  I’ve had a blast sharing our adventures with you all and I look forward to some new adventures in 2017.

So let’s recap what happened this year…

January – We kicked the year off running the SD 50 & Trail Marathon before heading to Arizona for Coldwater Rumble.

February – The big event in February was the Los Angeles Marathon & watching the Olympic Trials for the Marathon.  It was so exciting watching all the big names battle it out to go to Rio.

March – I ran the San Diego Half for the first time and then the next weekend, I had my first double race weekend, with Old West 50k on Saturday & the Hot Chocolate 15k on Sunday.  This weekend was key in getting my ultra running confidence back.

April – April was the first month we race every weekend. Starting it off with Carlsbad 5000 where we got to see some speedy elites battle it out for cash & prizes. Then mudageddon in Zion before going back to Leona Divide and finishing the month up with the oh so hilly La Jolla Half.

May – May saw more mud at Whoo’s in El Moro and my first 50 mile finish & Sean’s first 100 mile win! at Nanny Goat.

Paksit Photos

June – June started off with a double race weekend crewing Sean at SD100 before running Rock n’Roll SD.  We headed to Vail Lake for the SoCal Women’s Wine Country Half where Sean volunteered while I ran.  And for my birthday, we took my first trip to Portland where I came really close to PRing the marathon at VUM.

July – July started with a trip up to Santa Barbara for a very HOT SB100.  Then we were off to Tahoe for TRT 50/100.  I got my first mountain 50 finish and didn’t have any issues with elevation! A last minute decision had us running the SF Marathon while visiting family to close out the month & celebrate our first anniversary.

August – I amazingly had no races in August.  I crewed Sean at AC100 at the beginning of the month before we headed over the pond for him to run UTMB.

September – September was crewing and pacing at Tahoe 200 before a last minute trip to Big Bear to run/hike the Kodiak Back 50k.

October – October started with a bang and the Cuyamaca 100k!  We headed to Italy for the second time after I WON a trip to the Venice Marathon from the LA Marathon and I finally PR’d the marathon by 4 minutes!  The whirlwind month ended in Phoenix crewing Sean at Javelina.

Paksit Photos

November – The travels continued in November with NYC Marathon followed up with Revel Canyon City and a last minute decision to run Red Rock for Sean’s birthday.

December – December started off with a crazy double-race weekend with North Face on Saturday & CIM on Sunday.  We finished up the year with the San Diego Holiday Half and then some relaxing!

Race Stats: 100k, 2 – 50 milers, 3 – 50k’s, 7 marathons, 9 half marathons, and one each 25k, 15k, 10k, 5k for a total of 26 races this year.

As of today I was at 1,568 miles for the year, my highest mileage year yet – August had the lowest monthly mileage with 98.6 (because of the back issues I was experiencing) and May was my highest monthly mileage ever with 175.5.

Now how did I do with my 2016 goals?

1. PR the marathon – YES!!! Finally!  I had a slow start, but I ended up with a PR at Venice Marathon and 4 out of the 7 marathons were under 5 hours, which made me really happy!
2. Really train – For the first half of the year, we trained a lot.  I had the back injury at the end of July that derailed me a bit.
3. Run in at least one new place.  We went to Tampa, Zion National Park, Portland, Chamonix – Mont Blanc, Santa Barbara & Sacramento
   
4. Run at least one new distance this year…I ran 2 new distances, 50 miles & 100k
5. Keep up with the Winter Strength Challenge – yeah, this went until Valentine’s Day and then died off
6. Be more timely with writing my race recaps on the blog – ummmm….no comment lol
7. Write at least 2 blog posts a week – I tried 😉
8. Drink more WATER!!!  Still a work in progress

Did you achieve your goals in 2016?  And if not, what do you need to work on?  Me, being consistent with my recaps & I definitely need to drink more water ;).