2009 running - A good year. B+ grade

Not a bad year. My overall total mileage is down about 50 miles from last year(2984), and that was mainly due to taking June off. I had run myself to the ground over the prior 18 months, and just need to rest my body if I was going to train well for my Ultra races.

2009 had 4 major races. It was a year where I attempted to achieve a sun 3-hour marathon at Boston. A critical error in hydration foiled that plan, but still had a strong showing with a healthy 5 minute PR. 2009 also saw me enter the world of Ultra distance running and racing, and I’m happy with my performance, running 3 ultra distance races.

I learned a ton from each of those as the year went along, and am very happy with my results. It's strange to look back at all this as a summary and think that it's just my first year running ultra distance races. It feels like I’ve been running trail ultras for much longer, but that’s probably because those 3 races too over 20 hours to complete! Ha ha ha

Here’s a breakdown of my 2009 running year:

Total: 2,925 miles - 248 runs for 433hrs at 8:40/m pace - average run 1hr44mins

1,869 on Roads (64%)- 164 runs for 238hrs at 7:40/m pace - average run 1hr27mins

1,056 on Trail (36%)- 84 runs for 194hrs at 10:36/m pace - average run 2hr19mins

Average Monthly miles - 243

• Hi Month - 332 miles in January (3 months over 300 – Jan,Oct,Dec)
• Lo Month - 96.45 miles in June (2 months under 200 – Apr, Jun)

Average Week - 56.25 (terrible! but due to taking many recovery weeks after my races and June as a rest month. Removing those, the average is closer to 65)

• Hi Week - 100 miles (8 weeks over 80 miles)
• Lo Week - 17 miles (5 weeks under 25 miles)

Long run Breakdown:

There a saying that goes “The bigger the base, the better the race” and it is 100% accurate.

In 2009, I ran 54 runs 15 miles or longer...

• 38 of those were 18 miles or longer
• 35 of those were 20 miles or longer
• 18 of those were 25 miles or longer
• 10 of those were 26.2 miles or longer
• 7 of those were 30 miles or more
• 2 of those were over 35 miles
• 1 of those was 50 miles (technically 51+ miles, because I ran off course!)

RACES:

3 Marathons (1 “A” race):

• Austin 3:10:xx training run
• Boston 3:03:06 "A" race - 6:59/mile pace – Personal Best
• Stockholm 3:39:xx Fun with Dehydration & Diarrhea!

3 Ultra-distance Trail races - (The first 3 of my running career)

• Bandera 50km (31 miles) - 4:59:42 (7th Overall - 1st place Age Group)
• Inks Lake 60km(37.3miles) - 6:20:21 (2nd Overall)
• Cactus Rose 50mile (80km) - 9:01:xx (3rd Overall)

Other random races:

• Austin Capitol 10km
• The Maze Trail race 10km
• The Bluffs trail race 30km (18.5 miles)

What's in store for 2010?

• Bandera 100km(62miles) in January
• Boston Marathon in April (attempt #2 to get under 3 hours)

...and then I honestly have not made up my mind. Some ideas are swirling in my head, but I will not make up my mind until after I run the Grand Canyon Rim2Rim2Rim in May for fun.

Only a B+, because I missed my sub 3 in Boston. No gifts, no excuses.