Running Report: 4th Quarter 2010

It looks like we have made it to the final quarter of 2010 and thus, the final quarterly report for 2010. I will focus this report on the final quarter of the year and will follow up with an annual report in the next day or two. So here are some thoughts on the 4th quarter.

My running goals for 2010 are to:
1. Run 10 half marathons during the year 2010.
2. Record new personal records (PRs) in each distance.
3. Run 1,000 miles in 2010

1. Run 10 half marathons during the year 2010.
The fall and winter months seem to be half marathon season around here. It is far too hot in the summer months to run any long races and there just aren't many on the schedule, so that leaves the fall and winter months for all of the good races. I ran three half marathons this quarter: Tyler Rose Half on 10/10, the DRC Half on 11/7, and the White Rock Half on 12/5. I find that I am most comfortable in this schedule where the halfs are about a month apart. I am happy to report that I recorded my 2nd and 3rd best half marathon times during the DRC and White Rock Half Marathons, both within 2 minutes of my personal record time. The White Rock Half was my "extra credit" race as it brought my total to 11 for the year and 18 overall. Each race brought increasing hip pain and I am happy that I was able to complete them with as much success as I did. I hope that the worst of that is behind me and I plan to write more about it in a future blog. I really enjoyed pursuing this goal and already have 3 half marathons on the calendar for January and February 2011. It looks like this is a goal that will continue, in some form, into the new year.

2. Record new personal records (PRs) in each distance.
I had considered this goal met during the 3rd quarter, but had a bit of a surprise in early November. I ran Dorothy's Dash 5K on November 13 and was able to better my 5K PR by almost a minute and I was thrilled to place 3rd in my age group. It was always a "secret goal" of mine to score an age group award, and I am amazed that I did it twice this year. I find 5Ks to be exceptionally challenging as the pace is faster than my pace for longer races and I would like to attempt more of these in the future.

3. Run 1,000 miles in 2010
I am happy to say that I completed this goal during my long run on December 26--with almost a week to spare! My yearly total stands at 1013.35 miles run in 2010. The fourth quarter total is 236.7 miles. It is interesting to note that this quarter brought one of my highest monthly mileage totals and also my lowest monthly mileage total. Totals are: October 100.04, November 60.29, and December 76.01. November holds my lowest totals of the year and it was caused by a busy travel schedule and (mostly) that nagging pain in my hip. I was out of town 10 days this month, which usually doesn't stop me from running, but I was also dealing with the worst of my hip pain. The combination did not encourage me to pound the pavement very much. I was quite grateful that I had run those extra miles earlier in the year and was able to take an entire week off after the White Rock Half in early December. This goal served its purpose the best of all and it really got me out there on days when I thought about taking it easy.

As you can see, the 4th quarter held a lot of highs and lows....from age group awards, bonus PRs, and half marathon success, to hip pain, searching for answers, and taking time to listen to my body. I always say that we learn the most from adversity and this appears to be the case yet again. Stay tuned for the 2010 annual report and the introduction of my 2011 running goals.