2010 in Review

Since I'm not running anymore this calendar year, I don't have any more races to run either. So I thought I'd take some time to reflect on what I've done. Since I'm not old and fat yet, I still do this for the results. Results for 2010 is a loose interpretation.

I ran 20 races in 2010, between January 24 and December 12. So that is a race every 16.15 days. I raced 152.94 miles in 14 hours, 27 minutes, 5 seconds. I could come up with lots of other statistics that are useless. Instead I'll look at the races and times themselves. The total number is in parenthesis, and times are listed chronologically.

One Mile (1) 4:47
5K (6) 16:43, 16:40, 18:19, 16:42, 16:37, 16:08
8K (4) 27:52, 26:36, 27:35, 26:32
10K (2) 32:49, 35:32
15K (1) 52:00
Half Marathon (5) 74:20, 73:19, 77:24, 76:55, 75:32
Marathon (1) 2:34:33

The Mile was a one shot. I'm happy with it; I didn't know if I'd break 5 minutes on the hilly course. Maybe next year I'll get a faster one, but who cares?

5k's look pretty bad, but very consistent... But when I think about it, there was only one that I was really in good shape for: SPCA. That's when my alarm was set for PM and I started at Capital Ale House after the gun went off. I'm pretty disappointed that I didn't get a real clock on that 5k, because it would have probably been my best. But this also shows why the Turkey Trot was really a good race for me. It was the fastest of the season by 30 seconds. I didn't have a track 5k in 2010, so that slowed things down a bit probably too. I hope to be better prepared and run faster over 5k in 2011. It's really the bread and butter race.

8k wasn't something I'd done much lately. 4 for the year is about twice as many as in the past year or so probably. John Robbins was terrible because I hadn't slept the night before. That race was a disaster. Tim was so far ahead of me... probably 3 minutes. Ridiculous. The 4th of July was actually 5 miles. It was the fastest I'd ever run at that race, and I was considerably closer to Tim than I'd been at Civitans, so I was really happy that day. Tribe Open was a crap shoot. I went out in the back and just tried to have fun. I didn't care about the time and didn't have on a watch anyway. But then in Richmond I ran really well, considering I signed up two days before and slept in. It wasn't a bad time and I performed well in terms of racing. Sure, it was a minute slower than the last time I raced there, but it was still good for that day.

I ran two 10k's-- Monument and Civitan. This is the first time I'd ever done a 10k besides Civitans. My PR was 33:50 and I ran 32:59 at Monument. I started out slow and I passed a lot of people. I out-kicked an Olympian. (Yes, it was a woman and she is Canadian, but I out-kicked her nonetheless.) Civitans was TERRIBLE. I don't remember if I didn't try or what, but it was so bad. I was like 5 minutes behind Tim or something. It was a bummer. I'll talk about the 15k here too. I got engaged that day and I didn't care about the race. I wanted to win as easily as possible. I sat behind second place for about 7 miles and then I blew his doors off. If you look at pictures from the race, you can't even see me. I was in his shadow. So that was a good day.

I raced 5 Half-Marathon's this year. That may be above average for me. We've got two in town now and then I'll always do Colonial. But I also went to VA Beach twice for Shamrock and Rock N Roll. I hate the half marathon. But I did PR at Shamrock in terrible conditions by 4 seconds. I don't really count it though, because 4 seconds isn't any faster than what I did in 2005. So that sucks. I did well at Colonial, and I had terrible races at Rock N Roll and Historic Half. During both races I was very sick. At Blue & Gray, I did well considering how little training I'd been doing. So it was nothing to complain about that day.

I won't go into Twin Cities since I already wrote a lot about it before. Instead I'll give you a link!

So that's it. Those are my races from 2010. Not a lot of highs, and plenty of lows. My thoughts for 2011 are promising. I'm going to run the FARC Series again, and I plan to win again. Someone may emerge, but I'll give them a run for their money if I can. The Battleground Relays 5000m will be my highlight for the spring. It's two weeks before the wedding so I'll really go for it. I'll do Colonial at the end of February, and the Historic Half. But right now, I'm thinking about running the Marine Corps Marathon. That may be the only one I do in 2011. We'll see. I'm a sucker for race registrations. I'm also going to do that Spotsy YMCA Triathlon again. That was a lot of fun.