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?

Race Recap: Towpath Half Marathon

People! Kali's out of town because she ran the Chicago Marathon on Sunday...so, go check out my guest post today over at Finishing Firsts about yin yoga for runners! 

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If the Cleveland Marathon was a 10 on the pre-race anxiety scale, this race was a 1.

And I like 1's a lot better!

Not gonna lie, I left work on Friday feeling like, I should be more nervous or more prepared for this race...but oh well! (Or "swaha" as my yoga teacher would say)

You know what? We did A.W.E.S.O.M.E.

I ended up running my second fasted half ever, and Brandon PRed! 

2:04:40

(for those of you with bad eye-sight, like me)

Seriously, people, it was birthday weekend. I gorged on sugary sweets and one too many glasses of red wine on Friday night. I guess that's how I should do it every time. 

Actually, I'm the most happy with how the race went because I didn't commit to a training schedule. I ran a couple times a week and a few races and probably one or two long runs. Ha! Running was almost an afterthought actually.

What I did do was a lot of cross training: 

Yoga (loads of it)

Body-weight circuits

Walking the pups (probably should have happened more often)

I honestly felt good the whole time. A little fatigued at the end, but it felt like we were cruising for the first 7 miles or so. We stopped for a few walk breaks to drink water, but overall had a really solid race.

This is a race that I would totally consider coming back to do the marathon next year (er...maybe in a few years). It's an awesomely flat course and it's beautiful! The towpath in the fall is probably my favorite time to run it.

Sunday's race also sealed the deal on half marathons for me - the half is far and away my favorite distance! My reasoning?

• Training for a half doesn't take up your entire life like a full does (and in this particular case, it hardly took up any of my life, although I would have liked to get in a few more longer runs)
• I feel much better running a half than a full. For some reason I ALWAYS die in the second half of a marathon. Maybe it's my training, or lack thereof, but I love being done after 13 miles. 
• After I finish a half, I'm not burnt out from running. Usually I need a good solid break from running after a full marathon. Not so much with a half.
• I honestly think I can PR a half. I'm not so confident in my ability to PR a marathon at this point.

That's not to say I'm not going to run full marathons. When the time comes and I'm ready again, I totally will. In the meantime, I'm going to keep on running and loving my half marathons. I know that I can keep up my half marathon endurance if I just keep on doing what I've been doing, and I absolutely love that.

What a great birthday weekend! Smiles all around!!