2010 in Review

I might be one of the last bloggers to write a recap of 2010.  Partly because I chose to write a race report at the beginning of the year, and partially because I've been spending my blogging time reading other blogs instead.


Let's start off with a list of the races I competed in 2010:

Wichita Frosty 5K - 21:15

Saint Louis Marathon - 3:55:05

Wichita YMCA Rock N Run 8k - 0:37:52

Valley Center 5K - 20:54

Wichita Prairie Fire Marathon - 3:35:49

Wichita Turkey Trot 10M - 1:12:55

Wichita Jingle Bell Run 4M - 0:28:46

Running St. Louis Marathon

The first half of the year wasn't too noteworthy,  my running times had been plateaued for all of 2009, and the start of 2010 was more of the same.   I did travel to Saint Louis for my only out-of-state race of the year to run their marathon on April 11th.  Also, I struggled with fatigue as I started running 60 to 70 mile weeks, up from 40 to 50 mile weeks.  The increase in mileage didn't really help my time in that marathon as I clocked a 3:55:05, one minute faster than my previous 26.2. 

Running Wichita Prairie Fire Marathon

However , the base I gained from training for St. Louis really helped me later that Summer, as I was able to quicken my pace while still maintaining 60 to 70 mile weeks.  Now that my body was able to handle that load,  I added some time on the elliptical machine to my routine.  The result was a 3:35:49 at the Wichita Prairie Fire Marathon on 10/10/10 (a 20 minute improvement over St. Louis and a PR by 10 minutes) .

Skipping back to May, I pulled my right hammy 5 days before a 10k I had already registered for.  It wasn't a bad pull, but I had to wait to run lightly on it for over a week.  Guess I should have known better than to run intervals 2 days after an intense 7 mile tempo run, just like I should have known better than to wear my Dallas Cowboys jersey in Philadelphia.  Luckily it was my only set back of the year.

My glass statue trophy from
 2nd place finish in Valley Center 5k

Besides the Prairie Fire Marathon, I had a string of PRs in the second half of 2010.  First came my 5k PR in 20:54.  Not only did I PR and take 1st in my age group, but I took 2nd place overall never mind that there were only about 50 people running\walking it.  I guess all the fast runners decided to run in this other little 10,000 participant event called the "Susan G. Koman Race For The Cure" that day.  Anyway, the guy that took 1st even let me lead for about 2 miles before he smoked me.  The trophy was awesome.  I think it could double as a piece of art.  On to November, I set a 10 mile PR of 1:12:55 that had my lungs feeling ready to retire.  Finally, a 4 mile PR with a 3rd place age group finish in 28:46 to complete the year.

I started this blog a day before my marathon in October.  A running blog wasn't even on my radar before September, but then I read an acquaintance's writing on Facebook, and I thought to myself I have lots of stories to tell and things to write about.  Not to mention, I wanted to connect with people as passionate about running as me.  Still, I thought about it for a week, and ran the idea by my wife and a couple friends before deciding I could make a commitment to blog.

Now to bring you some 2010 stats as only an engineer with a spreadsheet can:  My year end running totals no pun intended include 1337.5 miles on an indoor track,  536 miles on a treadmill, and 411.5 miles outdoors. Added up, that's 2,285 miles. I also logged 2,179 minutes on the Elliptical machine.   This marks my first year over 2,000 miles, or a 16% increase in mileage from 2009.  It would make sense that I set a record month for mileage too, tallying up 272 of them in the month of March.


I know not all years will be as rewarding or overachieving as 2010 has been for me, but I'm carrying some momentum with me into 2011, and who knows, maybe a BQ isn't too far off.