My Year In Running - 2015 Edition!

Update: Thursday, January 7, 2016. And the post should be titled My Year in Racing, Etc!

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The link up to Eat Pray Run DC (noted below) does not work, so sadly my blog post won't show there. Guess I was a little too late!  But it was fun to write the post, anyway!

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It is a New Year, and I am starting to schedule some new races!



But before that, I was inspired by my fellow runner friend and blogger, Kim, to do a Year of Running post! You can read about her year of running here!

Now, I do not know Courtney from Eat Pray Run DC - but thought this sounded fun. I look forward to reading about what the others who linked had to say, too!

Best race experience: This year my best race experience was the triathlon relay I did with friends – the Rock Hall Oly. There was no pressure, because I only had to do one leg, and was there to cheer on my teammates. We had a fun team name – Fat Bottom Girls – and even managed to snag a podium spot! That is just the bonus / icing on the cake!

Best run: This is really a group of runs (three to be exact). I met up with a couple of long time friends on these occasions to run in Washington, DC. We met early – before sunrise – at the Einstein Memorial and did a winding 6 mile loop through the city. It was amazingly quiet and peaceful, we got to enjoy the sun coming up, and we visited many of the memorials. It was truly a pleasure and I hope to do this again in the near future!

Best new piece of running gear: This was a surprise! Back on February 1st I attended the =PR= Big Game Runch for a fun run from the Reston store. They had a post-run raffle and I actually won a pair of Nike Structures! Winning was a surprise. An additional surprise was that once I finally received them and started using them, I fell in love with them! I’ve never worn Nikes in my 15 years of running, and I just recently purchased my second pair! You can read about this fun Runch, here and here!

Best running advice you’ve received this year: “Less is more.” This has to do with taking a minimalist approach to endurance events, such as the Ironman triathlon.Such as with the information in this article, here. A couple friends and I might train for another Ironman in 2017 and plan to follow this approach.

Most inspirational runner: I have three this year - my Rabbit-mates, Carol, Sally, and Pam. The three of them trained for a 50-miler using three different approaches. They all completed the race - the Tunnel Hill - successfully! And Carol with a stress fracture in her foot!

Favorite picture from a run or race this year: This event was not a race, per se, but a biking event. I signed up to ride the metric century at "Bo Bikes Bama" in Auburn, Alabama. The ride started and finished at Auburn University - Bo Jackson's (Bo Knows) alma mater. I had an ulterior motive, as my son was finishing up his senior year there and I got to visit him. This is my favorite event picture ever. You can read the Team Rabbit rap about this crazy weekend, here. And my personal experience, here!

Very excited to take a Bo Jackson Selfie!

Race experience you would repeat in a heartbeat: This year I raced the Reston Olympic Triathlon for the third time. The run was incredibly hard, but the overall experience was fantastic! Obviously I like the race since I went back! It is just a well run and nice event. The field is not too large as some tris some can be, but good sized with really wonderful volunteers. That and I had two awesome Sherpas help me out, which was nice, even for a shorter race!

If you could sum up your year in a couple of words what would they be? Satisfying. In 2015 I participated in about one race per month. This was far more manageable and less tiring then in some recent years. I did end up with a little heel trouble in the last part of 2015 and skipped running a Thanksgiving turkey trot and the Fairfax Four Miler, but I am on the mend and taking a similar approach to 2016!

Happy and Healthy Training!