Well 2012 is about to draw to a close. I consider it a very productive running year. I put together about 750 miles of running, up over 100 miles from 2011. I competed in 8 races (3-5k, 1-10k, 1-10 miler, 2 half marathons, and a full marathon).
To start off the year, and probably my ultimate highlight of the year was to run in my first marathon. I completed the Walt Disney World Marathon in January 2012, with a time of 4:54.
To follow this up, I set and broke my half marathon personal best twice, and currently have a PR of 1:52.
I also ran a 5k on Disney’s private island, Castaway Cay, in the Bahamas with my wife in Sept., making me an international runner now, lol. This was her first race she had ever ran.
After the marathon in January, I made the decision to run the Disney Goofy Challenge in January 2013, which entails running a half marathon on Saturday and a full marathon on Sunday, totaling 39.3 miles in 24 hours. Because of this decision, the training runs had to increase. After about August, every other weekend I would do long runs on both Friday and Saturday night. My final one was this past weekend, did 10 miles on Friday, and 20 on Saturday. Thank goodness that is over. Now it is tamper training until the big race weekend on January 12-13, 2013.
Over the year I have added or maintained some great running friends. First I must thank my Disney running buddy Becky. She and I did every Disney race this year (except she did the Princess Half, to which I obviously declined!) & the Kiawah half marathon. One of my 2011 training buddies Maribel had a bout of bad luck with a condition causing her to reduce her running greatly, so we ended up not being able to run much anymore, but she is still a great encouragement. I also have had some friends from work join me on Saturday runs. Thanks to Tasha and Dan for your hard work and doing those early morning runs with me! Tasha actually got into the NY half in March, so she is going to be ramping up her training. Kate in my office area has also got the running bug, but we haven’t yet ran together. Finally I met some great new friends late in the year, Greg, Noah, Cathy, & Becca (there are others in the group but haven’t learned all them yet), who did some long runs with me, when no one else could. Also the ROTE (Running of the Ears) group! Thanks for all the help and encouragement!
Well I think that’s enough of a recap, happy trails for 2012, and more trails in 2013!