On January 1, 2014 I set my running goals for the year. What better day than the last day of the year to take a look and see how I did on those goals, and to give myself a grade…
Bill and I ran one trail race, and went on three trail runs during 2014.
- April – EX2Adventures Backyard Burn at Fountainhead Park
- June – Hungry Mother State Park
- October – Molly’s Knob
- November – Mcafee Knob
2. Run a sub two-hour half marathon – A+
I ran two halves in 2014, and ran both in under two hours.
- Loudoun Half Marathon – 1:54:34 (8:45 pace) and set a PR
- Hokie Half Marathon – 1:55:26 (8:48 pace) – 2nd Place Age Group
3. Run a sub-24-minute 5K – A+
I ran six 5K’s in 2014, and hit the sub 24-minute mark on my third try.
- Run Your Heart Out 5K – 25:57 (8:21 pace)
- TKO Melanoma 5K – 24:55 (8:02) – 1st Place Age Group
- Fit Foodie 5K – 23:49 (7:40 pace) – 1st Place Age Group
- Firecracker 5K – 24:19 (7:50 pace) – 3rd Place Age Group
- Ashburn Farm Thanksgiving Day 5K – 24:23 (7:51 pace) – 1st Place Age Group
- Run With Santa 5K – 25:18 (8:10 pace) – 3rd Place Age Group
4. Greater variety in running venues – D+
In addition to Bill and me hitting a few new trails in 2014, I ran on the C&O Canal with some friends one time. I’ve volunteered to plan a special run once a month for my running group in 2015 so hopefully this will be a goal I can hit next year.
5. More blogger meetup runs – A+
I was a regular social butterfly with my blogger friends in 2014!
- January – Becky from Running On Happy
- February – Amy from Twingles Mom
- March – Julie from Diving into the Gene Pool, Courtney from Eat Pray Run DC, Sue from This Mama Runs for Cupcakes, Allison from Life’s A Bowl, and Erin from Run With Erin
- April – Anne from Mom and Dad Track Stars and Kim from Kim Runs Miles With Smiles
- May – Dora from Run Dominican and Logan from Mountains And Miles
- June – Amy from Twingles Mom, Sue from This Mama Runs for Cupcakes, Erika from MCM Mama Runs, Courtney from Eat Pray Run DC, Cynthia from You Signed Up For What?!, and Lauren (Salt) from Run Salt Run, Katie from Healthy Heddleston, and Meagan from Turkey Runner
- July – Mary from Taming The Thorsons and Anne from Mom and Dad Track Stars
- August – Jerome from TriRun Yoga, Kathryn from From Dancing To Running, Jenny from Run Jenny Run, Courtney from Eat Pray Run DC and Julie from Diving into the Gene Pool, and Anne from Mom and Dad Track Stars
- September – Meagan from Turkey Runner and Anne from Mom and Dad Track Stars
- October – Meagan from Turkey Runner
6. Consistent cardio cross-training – D
After purchasing my LifeCycle spin bike in January, I was very good at cross-training until the weather turned nice. Just as soon as those birds started singing, I wanted to be outside with them!
7. Run length of W&OD Trail – F
My goal was to break the W&OD Trail up into 10-12 mile segments and run each segment on a Saturday morning over the course of a month or two. With the exception of accompanying Ellie for a portion of her ultra, I barely made it out of my little neighborhood
8. Plan more Cruiser events – C-
During January I started two-timing on the Cruisers – plain and simple. I met a group of vibrant women that love running as much as I do, and suddenly found myself incredibly involved with them. It’s not that I’ve put the Cruisers on the back seat to my MRTT friends, it’s just with 400+ ladies in my chapter, and only about 8-12 active Cruisers, there’s always an MRTT friend to run with, and not necessarily a Cruiser.
I held the usual Cruiser events, but didn’t add any new ones as I’d hoped.
- June – Miles’ Pancake Run
- November – Thanksgiving Morning Post-Race Brunch
- December – Annual Christmas Party
I had a heart-to-heart talk with some of my Cruisers friends to try to see why they’re not showing up for Saturday morning runs, and it seems to pretty much be a timing thing. Now that their children are older, they don’t need to run early and be home in time for soccer games, etc. I on the other hand, want to get up and get my day started, even on Saturdays. If I scheduled our runs for 10 AM, I’d have a better showing, but I’d lose half of my day.
I plan to enjoy the best of both worlds, and enjoy a run or social activity with anyone from either group that’s willing to let me hang out with them!
Bonus points for other races and unwritten goals met:
I had never run a Ragnar Relay, but had wanted to for several years. I decided that 2014 was the year to accomplish that goal and became a captain for our Ragnar DC team, Cruisers Rockin’ The Relay. It was one of the most fun races I’ve ever run, and I couldn’t wait to do it again so I’m signed up for Ragnar Appalachians in June!
Other races I ran in 2014:
- Leesburg 20K – 1:45:30 (8:30 pace) and set a PR – 1st Place Age Group
- Reston 10 Miler – 1:35:47 (9:35 pace)
- EX2Adventures Spring Backyard Burn Ten Mile Trail Race – 1:58:17 (11:49 pace) – 1st Place Age Group
I ended 2014 with 1,129 miles. Not bad. Not bad at all!
- Questions:
- How did you do with your 2014 goals?
- Have you set your 2015 goals? ~ I’ll post mine tomorrow
- Who has a race today or tomorrow?
Well 2 out of 8 isnt THAT bad! LOL! Been fun getting to know you this year. happy new year friend 🙂
Deborah @ Confessions of a Mother Runner recently posted…My Royal Wow Moments
Ummm, that’s 3 out of 8! 😉
It’s been great getting to know you as well. 2015 will be our year to meet!
That’s a lot of goals you had for 2014! It looks like you had a great year of running. I accomplished most of my goals. The one I did not meet was a sub 2 half. So close.
HoHo Runs recently posted…2014 Year in Review
Here’s to meeting our missed goals in 2015!
I’d say you did pretty well on those goals! Congrats on a great year! It was great finally meeting up with you! Happy New Year!
Sue @ This Mama Runs for Cupcakes recently posted…My Year of Running and Racing 2014
Happy New Year to you, too, Sue! Love meeting you, and then seeing you at several other races.
Great job on your 2014 goals! I’m excited to see what you’ll set for 2015!
Meagan recently posted…The end of the holidays
After this little back incident, 2015 is going to be all about staying healthy… 🙁
Nice job on your 2014 goals – I like your #7, sounds like it would have been fun and its pretty creative. Will you add it back in for 2015?
Jennifer recently posted…Monthly Goals – January 2015
Yes, I’m adding #7 back for 2015. The Cruisers and I did it several years ago and it was fun saying we’d run the entire W&OD Trail over the course of a month. Perhaps you can join us for some of those miles!
I love the “report card” style of this post 🙂
Congrats on your half marathon and your 5K PRs. Just awesome, Debbie! 🙂 I have to apologize for not being a good “blend” and encouraging you along the way this year… but you are in my thoughts often and I’m always rooting for you!
It’s interesting how people’s lives change. The patterns of the way we spend our time seems to go through seasons just like the weather. Hopefully you’ll be ok with the Cruisers going through a season of less participation. I’m sure that it’ll pass and another season of more participation will follow.
BTW – I wrote one of my math final exam questions about a running club called the Cruisers just for you!
[email protected] recently posted…2014 Hits and Misses
Awwwww, that’s so awesome about your exam question! I just posted it to our Cruisers Facebook page. They’ll like that. 🙂
[…] completely spent when I’m done. And, I give tempo training full credit for making my 2014 racing season so […]