2016: My Year of Running

Happy Tuesday! I hope that you all had a great time celebrating the holidays with your family and friends over the weekend.

Today I’m linking up with Marcia from Marcia’s Healthy Slice, Erika from MCM Mama Runs and Patty from My No-Guilt Life for Tuesdays on the Run.

I’m also linking up with Courtney from Eat Pray Run DC for her annual Year of Running linkup.

While I’m more than ready for 2016 to be over, I can’t deny that it was a year full of running and racing. Injuries aside, I was lucky enough to travel for some really great races and got to see many of my friends this year. I’m looking forward to a successful year of running in 2017!

Best Race Experience

Rock ‘n’ Roll San Diego Half Marathon was the ultimate fun race experience for me. The entire weekend was a blast! I was still dealing with runner’s knee, so there were no time goals. In addition, Jen and Smitha ran a half marathon the day before, so they didn’t have any time goals either. Not only was it my first time meeting Smitha in person, but we ran the entire race together and Jen ran most of the race with us as well. Although it was a hilly course, we talked and laughed through all the miles. It was so much fun!

Best Run

I had a REALLY awesome 10 mile run in late October at the end of my marathon training cycle. It was my last long run before the NYC Marathon and it’s also my current 10 mile PR (1:40:xx). The weather was perfect and everything just clicked and the run felt effortless.

Best New Piece of Running Gear

I received a Garmin Forerunner 620 for Christmas last year and I started using it this year. It’s by far my favorite near piece of running gear for 2016. It’s so easy to use and really accurate. I used to have issues with the GPS and accuracy with my old watch but the Garmin watch rocks my socks 🙂

Best Running Advice I Received This Year

My running coach, Abby, gave me so many pearls of wisdom during my marathon training. I was SUPER nervous since it was my first marathon and I asked a bunch of questions, but Abby was always more than willing to listen and give great advice. I think the advice that most stuck with me was around goal setting. She emphasized that the most important marathon goal was to get to the race healthy and to finish the race. Sure, I had a time goal, but that was my B goal, not the A goal.

Most Inspirational Runner

Alysia Montano is one badass runner! I’ve always liked her because she seems like such a sweetheart with a great sense of humor. During the Olympic Trails in July, Alysia had a heartbreaking fall in the 800M Finals, dashing any hopes of her going to the Olympics. Not only did she get up and finish the race, but she handled the loss with such class. I liked her so much before, but I gained so much respect for her that day.

Favorite Picture From a Run This Year

This photo was from the Sono Half Marathon in October. I used the race as part of my last 20 miler of my marathon training cycle. This photo was taken around my mile 18 and I was still feeling good. I ran two more miles after the race and felt great!

Race Experience I Would Repeat in a Heartbeat

New York City Marathon. While it wasn’t the time I had trained for, I would still run this race again. You get to run through all five boroughs of New York and it’s the largest marathon in the world – How could I NOT want to repeat this race in the future?!

Sum Up Your Year in a Few Words

Surreal and Weird. I think most people can agree that 2016 was quite the year (and I don’t mean that in a positive way)! It’s still surreal to me that I ran a marathon considering I hated running less than 5 years ago. It’s also weird to me that I signed up to run another marathon in 2017, lol.

…and here is my year in running by the numbers

781 Total Miles
23 Races – 1 Marathon, 9 Half Marathons, 9 5Ks, 2 10Ks, 1 10 Mile Race and 1 15K
Ran races in 6 States – Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, California, Illinois and Nevada
Added 2 new states to my 25 States Half Marathon Challenge – California and Nevada
Infinite smiles and laughs along the way!

That’s it! I hope you enjoyed my 2016 Year of Running recap. Here’s to more great miles, memories and races in 2017.