This has really been a year of ups and downs! I thought I'd offer year end (almost) recap. I'm 60 miles from the 1,000 mile mark! This year started with me half-heartedly training for a May full marathon in Pittsburgh. When I trained for the 2018 Pittsburgh Marathon I was a total badass and ran almost exclusively outside all winter. I ran a 12 mile long run when it was about 15 degrees outside. I bundled up and ran outside and had slush in my water bottle by the time I got home. I only ran on a treadmill 4 times between the beginning of the year and marathon Sunday the first weekend in May. In early 2020 I felt like I struggled to breathe in the cold air and would cough for a long time after I finished so I was doing a ton of treadmill running.
January-76 miles. I ran a few outside miles but was mostly treadmill running at our local ymca. I was bored to tears most of the time on the dreadmill but I started playing games. I'd divide a shorter run in half and do half listening to a podcast and half music and for long runs I'd divide it into thirds and do 1/3 podcast, 1/3 something on Netflix or my dvr and 1/3 music. Because the ymca treadmills automatically shut off after a certain amount of time I'd usually stop it and reset it when I was changing up my podcast/music.
February-89 miles and almost all of it was treadmill running including two runs that were 15 and 16 miles. I felt awful. I was really questioning whether I wanted to truly do another full marathon. I debated on selling my bib a lot during February. I had put on a fair amount of weight in the prior year, I felt tired and sore and just wasn't enjoying running at all.
March-91.3 miles. I went out at the end of the month planning to do 10 miles and finish the month at 100 miles and only made it 1.3 miles. This was after all the shutdowns started and life was boring, the weather was still gloomy and there wasn't a clear answer about how long all the craziness would last (who would have guessed it would still be the same in December) and they hadn't cancelled the marathon yet and I felt in limbo about what to do about it.
April-50 miles. This was my low point of the year. I was feeling depressed about the weather and the pandemic and all the uncertainty. I knew I needed to get running but I just had no motivation. I registered for a virtual half marathon for late April that I knew I wasn't trained for but was hoping it would help me feel excited. It was pretty awful. They had also by then called the marathon so I didn't have much to train for.
May-70.8. This was when my mojo started to return. The weather improved and that helped me feel more motivated to get out. I decided that the week of the marathon I'd start on what would have been marathon Sunday and I'd run five days in a row and each day I'd run the mileage of a leg of the marathon relay so I'd run 26.2 miles over five days. By the fifth day my butt was kicked. The weather was so weird that week and some of the days were really cold and some were really warm. By late May I was starting to feel better and was slowly seeing some weight come off. I registered for a virtual event that was running the distance from Lake Erie (at the northernmost point of Pa) to the Mason-Dixon Line (southernmost point) between June 1st and July 31st which is 191 miles. So in late May I was trying to pickup my mileage a bit to prepare.
June-95.5 miles. The temps started getting warm and I was running a lot for the Run Pa challenge. Many days I ran in both the morning and the evening doing two a days to get the miles in. I was trying to get out by 8:00 in the morning and then running close to sunset to stay cool. By the end of June I was feeling like my old self and was running faster and started weight training again. It was the highest mileage I had run in well over a year and I was pain free and feeling amazing!
July 104.6 miles! Again lots of heat, lots of two a days. I ran in some crazy hot weather that month! I was consistently weight training and doing core work. This summer was hot and dry so I spent lots of time in my sister's pool soaking up vitamin D. I was slimming down, eating healthy and feeling good!
August-82.3 miles. This month started a new virtual race series I was doing through Another Mother Runner and the event in August was a virtual relay with a team of 5 mother runners! We started early in the morning with runner one. We had a Facebook group chat and each runner ran an hour and then would jump into the chat to "tag" the next runner. We each did two legs over 10 hours and I covered about 5.5 miles for each leg and I ran at 9:00 and 3:00 for my legs.
September-93 miles! More of the same! Lots of miles. Weight training was really paying off! The Virtual Event for AMR that month was what they called a "strong and solo" which was where the runner picked their distance and ran a strong virtual race. I needed to do my virtual race 10K for The Great Race in Pittsburgh that month so I planned to do a 10K for this event. I met a running friend at a local rails to trails trail because she had to do a 10 miler run for the Broad Street Run so our plan was that I'd run my 10k and then just run with her for a little while. I started out and I was running like lightning (fast for me) and after about two miles I realized I was on target to run a sub 30:00 5k which I've never been able to do. I decided to do both a 5k and a 10k that day. I ran a 29:59 that day in my 5K and I still ran a relatively fast 10K right after that at 1:03:53.
October 85.4 miles and the chance to do two small in person half marathons! I ran a big 2.5 minute PR on 10/4 and a rough half on 10/25 that I still am glad I did. I had some foot issues after that race so took about a week off before I ran again and that first run back was rough. The AMR event for this month was what they called a "Stack it Up" which was done in the spirit of the Disney Dopey Challenge and we ran Friday, Saturday and Sunday with each day going further each day. I did a 5K, 5 Miler and a 10k that weekend.
November-74.1 miles. November brought me a trip to Columbus Ohio for my kids to have doctor's appointments along with a bizarre non-running related injury that had me off for over a week again. I regrouped once I was feeling better and finished out November with a crazy event for the AMR series that they called the Go Long event. Many of the runners did what's referred to as a Yeti Challenge which involves running five miles every four hours for 24 hours. I opted to do something that felt really special and I ran the five legs of the Pittsburgh Marathon Relay doing one every four hours for a day of 26.2 miles. My last two legs were done back to back because I was tired, cold and hungry but I pulled it off. I had company for most of my runs and owe a huge debt of gratitude to my friends Erin, Sean and Rob for joining me for so many miles!
December so far I have 28 miles. Our weather had stayed relatively mild which is helping because I don't feel safe to run on a treadmill in a gym. I'm hoping to get the last 60 miles I need to hit the 1,000 mile mark before the year ends. I have gotten away from the strength and core work so I'm getting back to that and have gotten it in twice this week.
This year while crazy has been really good for me and I've managed to turn my fitness around this year. I'm feeling good and feeling ready to tackle my second full marathon in May and I'm planning to register for my first ultramarathon a 50K in June to celebrate my 50th birthday! I also found an amazing local running group that I've done a few group runs with. Due to Covid I don't go often and run most of my runs solo but every so often I join them and we all run pretty far apart as our paces are really varying and it's a small group. I love them all! They are so welcoming and supportive and no matter how infrequently I join them they are always welcoming and I love that when we do hill work the faster folks always wait for us slower folks before continuing on their way! If you happen to be near Butler, Pa you much check out the Butler County Milers group!
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