These posts are fun to write for me. It's nice to look back at the year and reminisce on all the fun things I got to do--trips, races, life changes--and this year was a big one.
The winter of 2015--from January to March--was probably my best winter of training to date. I had some lofty running goals, so I wanted to start the year off with a solid base. March and April brought some solid race results including four mile, seven mile, and ten mile races.
I ran my first four mile race in March, setting a new PR by default. At the MDRA 7 mile, I took a wrong turn and ended up running over a half mile farther than seven miles, but my unofficial seven mile split was a PR. In April, I ran a 58:32 at the Fred Kurz 10 mile, missing a PR by 13 seconds.
In May, I finally broke five minutes in the road mile, running a 4:55--only three seconds slower than my indoor mile PR. It was in May, however, that I first started feeling those nagging injuries.
In retrospect, I overdid it in the winter. I peaked early, and then nagging injuries kept me from running well for the rest of the year.
I had a terrible race at the Med City 5k later that month, and failed to finish while pacing the Med City Marathon the next day. My calves and right Achilles tendon were killing me, and they would continue to bother me until almost October.
Still, in July I ran a decent race at the Afton 50k, setting a PR (though it was only my second 50k and the course was definitely easier).
Without consistent training, I decided not to race a fall marathon or half marathon. The only half I "raced" was in July where summer head cold combined with hot and humid weather kept me from running well.
Though it wasn't the year I'd hoped it'd be, I did get to pace a few new (to me) races. I had a ton of fun pacing the Fargo Marathon, the Valley Fair Run and Ride Half Marathon, and the Urban Wildland Half Marathon.
Though I had some nice races in 2015, running was only a small part of a big year of changes. The year brought a new job, and, the big one, an upcoming baby, due January 28.
Life will be interesting next year, and running will definitely have to take a bit of a backseat to parenthood. I'm hoping 2016 will be the best yet!
Happy Running!
