What a comeback year! After spending so much of 2018 on the sidelines, it was so awesome to jump back into running and adventures. I felt a new sense of appreciation each time I got to spend a weekend playing in the woods with my friends. And I have never been so happy to have long periods of time with a healthy, capable body.
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| Happiness in Kathmandu, Nepal |
January
I started the year off with a New Year’s Day run on Coosa and began working with a running coach.
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| New Year's Day Coosa Loop |
It was exciting to do workouts during the week and I looked forward to spending time on the trails with my friends on the weekend.
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| With trail wifey on Tray Mountain |
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| Before the sleet storm on Nimblewill with John |
It had been well over a year since I had run a trail race and I needed a 50K+ qualifier to complete my Georgia Death Race requirements. I ended up choosing Mountain Mist 50K in Huntsville, Alabama. I camped overnight in my car the night before, raced a muddy and chilly 31 miles, and ended up 5th female overall.
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| Mountain Mist 50K finish line |
February
Jenster and Angie were coming into town to pace the Suwanee Half Marathon so I jumped into the race. I was hoping that I would strike much closer to the 1:30 mark, but I felt really flat from the gun on race day and worked really hard for a PR of 1:38:54. I know you aren’t supposed to be disappointed in a PR, but I’ve had faster splits in a full marathon. As I went through the month, I felt really good about my aerobic fitness, but then I had some twinges of foot pain and my coach tweaked my workouts to reduce further injury.
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| Post-race brunch with these badasses who BOTH had run 100 mile races in the previous 2 weeks |
March
I signed up for the URE Marathon in North Carolina because it was free, great GDR training, and I knew a bunch of friends going. It was a little nerve-wracking going into the race sitting partway on the bench with my foot in limbo. But for whatever reason, my foot felt okay on race day, I took it easy, and tried to just keep a relaxed effort all day. I recovered well after the race and things seemed to have turned the corner for GDR.
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| Girl squad |
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| Dude squad |
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| URE Marathon finish chute |
Though I really wanted to crack the top 10 at GDR, I also knew that I was entering new territory. I had run further and longer before, but never with that type of terrain. I took it really conservative for the first 35 miles and then allowed my body to just go with the course during the second half. It was really tough, but I was the 13th female and got it done in 18 hours, 19 minutes, and 13 seconds.
April
I went to Raleigh the weekend after GDR and volunteered at Umstead 100 with Jenster, Caitlin, and Laurie.
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| Volunteering with Laurie, Jen, and Caitlin |
And the following weekend was the Boston 5K, my birthday, and the Boston Marathon. Brad stayed with Adam and I in an Airbnb in Chinatown and it was a fun, low-key few days with running, eating, baseball, and lots of naps. I managed a 3:18:28 for the marathon - my 4th fastest marathon ever and with very little specific marathon training! Guess my legs were just happy to not run another 15 hours.
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| Boston 5K |
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| Birthday dinner by Gatorade phone light |
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| Boston Marathon finish line |
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| Brad and I celebrating our Boston Marathon finishes |
May
May, May, May, May, May. The month I traveled to Qatar and Nepal and experienced a trip of a lifetime! I had been looking forward to this for almost 2 years and am still cherishing the moments as I write this. It was everything I had hoped for and more. The people, the adventure, the sense of accomplishment, the food, and the entire sense that I was happy with exactly that moment for nearly 3 weeks straight. I was almost overwhelmed with how calm my mind was when I returned.
The marathon itself was a really cool experience, but I loved the trekking and travel just as much. Our group laughed until we cried each day. Navigating everything that was foreign to me gave me such pleasure, like I was a child navigating the world for the first time. Everything was novel and I had such a deep appreciation for each experience.
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| On one of the many iconic suspension bridges during the trek |
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| Overlooking Tengboche |
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| Between Dengboche and Lobuche |
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| My first 18er! Kala Patthar, 18,514' |
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| Post 18er - feeling crappy from altitude sickness |
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| Hiker's base camp - 17,598' |
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| Everest Base Camp sunrise from my tent |
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| Finishing the Everest Marathon! (no, I didn't win, they put the tape up for everybody) |
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| With my fellow trekkers, head guide, and assistant head guide - (L-R) Kale, Sie, Pam, Miguel, me, Becky, Mo, and Gelu |
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| Trekkers and all our guides |
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| The Himalayan valley is so, so green |
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| Kathmandu, Nepal |
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| Drinking a mango smoothie in a souq at 9pm when it's 110°F |
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| Doha, Qatar - view from my hotel room |
June
When I arrived back home, I knew I just wanted to take a bit of time to just really be able to enjoy my big spring and not concentrate on a new goal right away. I ran when I felt like it for a couple of weeks and didn’t worry about my pace or mileage. My coach gave me a bit of structure, but there weren’t any big workouts or long run weekends.
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| Easy running on the trails |
July
I knew going into the fall that I wanted to run a 100 and set my eyes on Javelina Jundred in Phoenix, Arizona or Pinhoti 100 in Eastern Alabama. I had some FOMO when other friends were racing over the summer, but I also knew that it was important to give my body a chance to relax and recover if I was going to attempt 100 in the fall. I had a horrible case of poison ivy that made running (and life) really, really uncomfortable for over 3 weeks.
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| Getting back to it (with poison ivy) |
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| Poison Ivy 1, Carissa 0 |
August
With lots of friends training for fall races, my weekends were filled with trail runs. I actually did a bunch of track workouts on Tuesday mornings, swapping the heat of the evening for the humidity. I enjoyed seeing the gains in my fitness as I transitioned from week to week. It was exciting to see my tempos get longer and faster.
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| Blood Mountain gang |
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| Track workout |
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| Tempo workout |
September
I knew I wasn’t going to be racing Hinson for the full 24 hours, but rather taking advantage of the course as a couple of well-supported long runs. I completed 50K in the morning/early afternoon and took a long break where I refueled and did a few more laps eventually to get food. Then I took a short nap in the evening. I set my alarm to get up around midnight and knocked out 15 more miles of running. I was wide awake when I finished that and felt good so I just kept walking until the race was over, completing 63 total miles..
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| Round and round and round at Hinson Lake |
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| After running 50ish miles, I walked a half marathon in flip flops. |
October
I was SO EXCITED to race Javelina Jundred! I had my first set of pacers and crew ever for a race and I felt really, really prepared. Needless to say, it was pretty disappointing when I made the painful decision to DNF at mile 52. Though I was so, so angry at myself that weekend, I also felt really, really lucky to dream the dream and have such a support system with me.
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| At bib pickup |
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| Chantal and I in our tent before the race |
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| Roger took this amazing pic on race morning |
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| Adam and I right before the race start |
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| Feeling good at mile 22 |
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| Feeling defeated at mile 52 |
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| My pacers Roger and Chantal got to pace Tom to his first 100 mile finish! |
November
After JJ, I recovered a bit and then switched gears to get my head in the game for a road marathon. I reverse tapered, had a few bigger weeks of workouts and then tapered off a bit as I neared Rehoboth.
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| Post-run selfie in November |
December
My coach thought I was in PR shape, but I had been feeling just flat in all my workouts leading up to the race. I knew how I felt when I had run 3:13 and I just wasn’t feeling like I had the leg speed for that. So I decided to play it safe at Rehoboth and run with the 3:25 pacer - a 10+ minute BQ would likely still give me enough cushion unless things got really crazy with the qualifying times. I ended up running a 3:24:11 and felt great the final 10K.
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| Rehoboth Beach Marathon finish chute |
2019 Goals Report
I made a formal list of goals for 2018 and enjoyed the process so I tried it again for 2019. I’ve decided against doing it for 2020. Sometimes I felt like I was a little too rigid in trying to conform to some of these things that I couldn’t just let life flow - especially the things that I set up to happen on a weekly or monthly basis.
But I do think some of them helped me get into good habits and forced me to manage my time a teeny bit wiser to get it all done.
Here are my grades/assessments on my goals for 2019:
1. 2 weeks of meal planning per month - B - I counted any weeks that I planned 5 days and stuck to the plan of 4 days. We typically would go out on Thursday night and Saturday night so I’d tried to have something planned out the other days. As a meat-eater, this really just meant that I’d try to have the right protein moved from the freezer to the refrigerator and some sort sort of veggie planned depending on the season. Summer salads and lots of pasta helped keep this goal pretty easy.
2. PR in a distance less than a marathon - A - An A only because I achieved it. Even still, all my times for raced 5K, 10K, 13.1, etc are far slower than what I’ve achieved in a training run. But I’m giving myself an A because I did PR in the 13.1 distance and in a 5K in races, but I also PR’d in a 5K and 10K during a training run this year.
3. Call or write Grandma at least once per month - A -Yup! I counted going to see her in person for November, but I did actually write (snail mail!) or call each month of the year.
4. Do something kind once per week - B - I don’t think I went out of my way every week to really make this one special, but I did bring in special treats for coworkers or extra snacks for trail running friends. Sometimes it was just lending an ear to someone to vent or sending a text to someone I hadn’t heard from in awhile.
5. Check-ups at all docs - B - Technically, I only saw the eye doctor when I had some weird floater things and not for my vision. But I did go to the dentist for my bi-annual cleanings and to the doc for my yearly physical.
6. 100 mile trail race or marathon PR - D - I’m calling it a D because I did actually toe the line at a 100 mile trail race so at least I got through the training and made it to the start. Just didn’t actually finish said 100 mile trail race.
7. 1 no spend month - F - Nope. Didn’t happen. Bought all the things.
8. 60 minutes stretch or strength per week - A - I decided to count cross-training too with focusing on strength first. Most weeks I had 60+ minutes of strength alone.
9. 2019 miles in 2019 - A - Never a sure bet, but I finally crossed over the mark in December.
1. 2 weeks of meal planning per month - B - I counted any weeks that I planned 5 days and stuck to the plan of 4 days. We typically would go out on Thursday night and Saturday night so I’d tried to have something planned out the other days. As a meat-eater, this really just meant that I’d try to have the right protein moved from the freezer to the refrigerator and some sort sort of veggie planned depending on the season. Summer salads and lots of pasta helped keep this goal pretty easy.
2. PR in a distance less than a marathon - A - An A only because I achieved it. Even still, all my times for raced 5K, 10K, 13.1, etc are far slower than what I’ve achieved in a training run. But I’m giving myself an A because I did PR in the 13.1 distance and in a 5K in races, but I also PR’d in a 5K and 10K during a training run this year.
3. Call or write Grandma at least once per month - A -Yup! I counted going to see her in person for November, but I did actually write (snail mail!) or call each month of the year.
4. Do something kind once per week - B - I don’t think I went out of my way every week to really make this one special, but I did bring in special treats for coworkers or extra snacks for trail running friends. Sometimes it was just lending an ear to someone to vent or sending a text to someone I hadn’t heard from in awhile.
5. Check-ups at all docs - B - Technically, I only saw the eye doctor when I had some weird floater things and not for my vision. But I did go to the dentist for my bi-annual cleanings and to the doc for my yearly physical.
6. 100 mile trail race or marathon PR - D - I’m calling it a D because I did actually toe the line at a 100 mile trail race so at least I got through the training and made it to the start. Just didn’t actually finish said 100 mile trail race.
7. 1 no spend month - F - Nope. Didn’t happen. Bought all the things.
8. 60 minutes stretch or strength per week - A - I decided to count cross-training too with focusing on strength first. Most weeks I had 60+ minutes of strength alone.
9. 2019 miles in 2019 - A - Never a sure bet, but I finally crossed over the mark in December.
10. Volunteer/crew/pace/spectate at 10+ races - C - I officially volunteered at 3 races and put in 21 hours of official time at races. I volunteered at aid stations at Umstead 100 and Merrill's Mile and swept part of the Bull Mountain Epic course. I crewed/spectated at Javelina once my own race went south. And while it wasn't a race, I did set up an aid station in the woods for a group training run and ferried a few friends back who were having a rough day.
11. Read 30+ books - A - I had to push myself a little more at the end, but I am currently reading my 32nd book of the year.
- Top 3 fiction: Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beath Keane, The Power by Naomi Alderman, and An American Marriage by Tayari Jones.
- Top 2 non-fiction: Educated by Tara Westover and Becoming by Michelle Obama
- Top running-related: Running Home by Katie Arnold
An amazing year! An amazing woman! An amazing daughter!
ReplyDeleteRock star and she-idol. Congrats on making more out of one year than humanly possible. Wow. ❤️
ReplyDeleteEpic is an understatement here! You are rocking life. I relate to this so much: "I have never been so happy to have long periods of time with a healthy, capable body." And I also read Running Home by Katie Arnold this year. :-)
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