2015 - My running year in Review

As 2015 comes to a close, I am pausing to reflect on my running year – the good, bad and the ugly.

Some of my favorite things that happened in my running and racing life this year are:

• A surprise 1:52 at Rock n Roll AZ (half) in January. I had low expectations and was really pleasantly surprised with the outcome. 
• Picking up a new state (South Carolina) when I ran the Hilton Head Half with friends in February. 
  
• Experiencing the awesomeness of Ragnar when I overcame my fears and jumped into Ragnar Del Sol in February.  Needless to say, it created a new obsession.
  
• Qualifying for the Half Fanatics by running 3 half marathons in 90 days
  
• A new 5k PR in April at the Run 3rd 5k
  
• Meeting and running with one of my Twitter BFFs in real life at the Charlevoix Half Marathon
  
• Running the Crim 10 mile (my favorite race) in my hometown of Flint, MI in 1:30
  
• Finding a new local race –the Haunted Half – that I got to run in a Wonder Woman costume
• Surviving my first Xterra trail race at Estrella Mountain
• Experiencing a Ragnar Trail race (McDowell Mtn)
• Running a 164 day runstreak!

The year also brought many challenges:

• I saw my finish times start to uptick again. I thought I was done with anything over 2 hours, but I had 2 races with a 2:01 time – Fox Valley half and Going the Distance half, and also a few near misses – 1:58 and 1:59. This was discouraging after experiencing so much progress in 2013 and 2014.
• I trained for the Tucson Marathon throughout the summer which was a little rough – throughout July, August, September and October here in AZ. Ugh.
• Ending my runstreak due to injury
• Feeling completely out of shape once I had to stop running

Obviously the biggest challenge of all has been my ankle injuries and sitting on the sidelines. This meant missing my marathon I trained so hard for.  Initial injury was Nov 7 and was diagnosed with a fibular fracture after another injury Nov 28 and I haven’t ran since that day. Impatiently waiting a few more weeks for clearance from the doctor (hopefully).

I created a fun flipagram that shows some of this year’s highlights.  Here’s hoping that 2016 brings new running friends, new adventures and a HEALTHY running year!