My Year in Running

2010 was good to me, probably one of the best years I can remember. As with any year, there were certainly ups and downs. I lost an uncle and there are people close to me in poor health. But overall, the year was a year of growth where I can honestly say that the woman writing this year-end wrap-up is not the same woman who began 2010. So let's take a look back.

I started the year overweight. I had already lost some weight in the fall but nothing puts things in perspective like seeing a picture. Here I am on New Year's Day with my dear friends, Tom and Ricardo.



I had already been working out 3 or 4 times a week but I wanted to start running again. So I asked 2 friends from high school (since I had just seen them at our reunion) if they would be interested in doing the big St Patrick's 5K in New Haven in March. Everyone agreed and I started working on running more seriously. I read through some old blog posts from January and I was thrilled, THRILLED to be running a 13:55 minute mile. Back then I was lucky if I was getting in 12 a week and I had to work so hard to do that. Even though it seemed unreasonable at the time I thought I would keep track of all my miles and see if I could hit 1000 for the year. That averages out to 19.2 miles a week and even though I wasn't close to that in the beginning, I hoped I would get better and have some weeks at the end of the year where I did more to make up for the difference. I knew it was a lofty goal but I also thought it would be fun to see how far I got.

The training for the 5K continued in February and early March. By that time I had gotten down to an 11:32 min/mile pace on the treadmill and I had been able to run for 3 miles straight so I felt as ready as I would be for the 5K.

It was a beautiful, chilly day and my friends showed up with their game faces on.



It was Wayne and Elaine's first 5K, too. We decided to all run our own races since we really had no idea what to expect for pace. That first mile felt like it was the hardest thing I ever did, the second didn't feel much better. I was sure I was going to have to walk to the finish but I found some strength inside me as I got closer to the end. I ended up finishing in 36 minutes and 33 seconds. I was overjoyed, as were Wayne and Elaine with their own victories.



That race gave me some much-needed confidence and I started to work harder on running, venturing outside for some trail runs and trying to get faster on the treadmill. Later that month I was out in Louisville and they had a huge 10K the weekend I was there. I figured, why not? Give it a shot. Again, I was lucky to have a beautiful, cool day and the race was a lot of fun. I did it in 1 hour, 13 minutes, 46 seconds. It was about the same pace as for the 5K but twice as long so I was happy with that. The Colonel was pleased, too.



After that, I decided to really get serious. I felt like I had (no pun intended) my running legs back and that I could aim for something bigger. I started spending more time on the trail which was challenging every week because of the elevation climb and the terrain but I saw my pace start to come down slowly but surely and I started to feel stronger.

In May, without a lot of planning, I decided to do the LI half marathon. It just worked out that my husband had to stay out there for the weekend it was happening so I could go out to see him and do the race or stay home, miss him for 2 weeks, and not do the race. I rushed in some long runs the 2 weeks before but you can't ever cram for these things. It also didn't help that the weather had gone from high 50s/low 60s to 80 that weekend with super humidity. The race wasn't a great one for me. I was slow -- my finish time was 2:47 or something like that. I wasn't quite ready to do it and it showed.

Despite that letdown, I got it into my crazy head that I wanted this year to be the year. I wanted to do a full marathon. I hadn't gotten into the NYC lottery so I was thinking about doing Hartford instead but something made me check the North Shore Animal League website and, to my great happiness, they were still accepting applications for their charity team. To my even greater happiness, I made it!

With 5 months ahead of me and my friends and family behind me, I started training in earnest. But every now and then I stopped to enjoy the process with the races I did in the summer and Fall. I learned that races can have great after parties, especially if free beer is involved:



I also picked up some pretty good bling:



I made some celebrity friends:






Beth Ostrosky Stern was the founder of Team Animal League and Harvey Walden from Celebrity Fit Club called me during my training and emailed me the day of the marathon to congratulate me.

I also made a serious celeb enemy!



But we worked it out and even congratulated each other in the lobby the day after the race.

From the months of training and the encouragement of my loved ones, I became a runner! I ran the 41st New York City Marathon in 4:47:31, an overall pace of 10:58 per mile. I was ecstatic!



I was high on my marathon finish for weeks, but I still had one more goal for the year to finish. On Christmas Day I hit my thousandth mile. I was smiling even as I felt like puking coming up that last hill (to be fair, I always feel like puking on that hill). For the first time I could remember I actually followed through on a New Year's goal. It was an amazing feeling.



I didn't stop there though. I ended up with 1,021.28 miles for the year. The good thing about running is there's always some kind of goal in progress. I may have been winding down for the year but was beginning to ramp up for the Spring racing season. The NYC half is March 20th, the LI one is April 30th, the Tough Mudder is May 8th -- all things I want to train hard for to make this coming year a continuation and progression from 2010. I'm not starting over and I am so grateful for that.

I couldn't have had such an amazing year had it not been for the love and support of my family and friends. It was 2 friends who got me out of my rut and on the streets of New Haven for that 5K and it was friends and family who continued to believe in me getting me to the finish of the NYC marathon. I am forever thankful to them. I'm even thankful to those who doubted me. Proving them wrong has been quite satisfying.

I rang in 2011 with my dear friends again. What a difference a year makes!



I hope to have another great year. I'm certainly going to do my best to make it happen!