2011: A Year In Races

2011 Race Results

St. Malachi 5 Miler 44:58

Cleveland Ten Miler 1:36:49

Cleveland Marathon 4:58:32
Memorial Day 4 Miler 35:59
AkRUN 5k 28:03
Akron Marathon Relay 3:58:13/26:03 for my leg
Towpath [Half]Marathon 2:04:40
Twinsburg Turkey Trot 46:09

We’re well into 2012 and I haven’t put more than 6 miles on my running legs yet, but I want to take a second to look back at my last year of running…and to let you know that I have big aspirations for the year ahead.

I can’t give you my total year’s mileage because somewhere in the middle of the summer, I stopped wearing my garmin. I’ve loved every single minute of my life without knowing my pace and mileage, so I think I’m going to keep it that way.

69.5 miles

My 2011 race mileage.  I know that would be dwarfed in comparison to other CLE runners (ahem…Kali, Moja) but I’m pretty proud of it. I’m even more proud to say that almost all of my races were run side-by-side with my best friend. Brandon. (*cough*cheeseball*cough*)

The year started with an awesome showing at the St. Malachi 5-miler where we busted out a 9 minute mile on a beautifully sunny winter day downtown. It wasn’t a PR but it felt great, despite the monster hill/bridge at the end.

The Cleveland10-miler was our warm-up for the main event – the Cleveland Marathon – and it just so happened that it was another amazing day for a run followed by a huge Easter dinner.

I can’t say the same for the marathon….as you probably already know, it was 60 and misty at the start and 50 and sopping wet by the end. It was my toughest race of the year, but worth every second.

The Memorial Day 4-miler was one race I ran solo. Brandon was hurt at the time, so he tagged along with the pups. It was basically in my backyard and even though it was the first 90-degree day of the year, I busted my butt through those miles and had the best finish-line cheering team around!

The AkRUN 5k was my only PR of the year! Even though it was a PR by 3 seconds, it was a PR and it felt good. I celebrated with ample brewskis, since there was a post-race pub crawl.

Thanks to twitter, I teamed up with Kali, Julie and a few other to run the Akron Marathon Relay. Even though I ran the shortest leg, I doubled it up by running back on the trail on Sand Run Parkway. Including running to and from the exchange points, I totaled about 7.5 miles…all in my vibrams!

Best race of the year? The Towpath Half Marathon. I won’t say I didn’t train, but I never had a set schedule for training. It was a PR for Brandon and the second fastest half I’ve ever run!

Rounded out the year with a Turkey Trot in Twinsburg. We ended up skipping out on the CLE Turkey Trot so we could get to our turkey dinner in PA as quickly as possible. It was another beautiful day in the neighborhood and we were happy with our time.

So that was my running 2011…what’s next in 2012? Probably less races…but these are the ones on my 2012 wish list:

• March – St. Malachi 5 mi
• April – Cleveland 10 miler
• May –Cleveland Marathon, Half Marathon
• June – Towpath 10-10
• September – Akron Marathon Half Marathon or Relay
• October – Towpath Half Marathon (maybe, it’s on my birthday)
• November – a turkey trot
• December – the great NYE race (also a maybe, New Year ’s Eve is typically our night in!)
• Sometime before October 7: a destination race

How did your 2011 races go?