GOOD WEEK, GOOD YEAR

I'll be ending 2014 on a high note and what a year it was. Two marathons within two seconds of each other, a slew of PRs, and the most miles I have ever ran in a year. I'll eclipse the 1600 mile mark tonight at run group and end up running almost 200 miles more than last year. Overall it's nice to look back and see what a good year I really had, especially with the blah attitude I've been having lately.

Last winter I was coming off the high of my first ever marathon, one that went great and left me excited for my second in Vancouver, BC that next May. I think that got me through the winter blahs last year because I don't remember dreading it this much a year ago. Now I've had two tougher marathon experiences (still successful though) so that pending marathon in Eugene spring 2015 isn't quite as "exciting." I'm sure once it gets closer and the days start getting longer and warmer I'll feel better about it though.

As for ending this year on a high note, despite my motivational issues, I've still been around 115 miles a month, which is perfect for maintaining my fitness. I've done some re-arranging due to weather but I've only "skipped" one run this entire time since the week after the Portland Marathon. That's pretty fucking good. Now I could be doing more speedwork and blah blah blah, but getting my ass outside in the cold and dark is victory enough. Killing myself on a track can wait until early spring.

Race highlight of 2014 for me.

I think the highlight of 2014 (other than Ragnar SoCal, which was awesome and the running part really didn't matter) was my PR at the Shamrock 15k in March. I was just hoping to break 1:10 that day and to get 1:06 was absolutely mind blowing. To totally shatter what you believed your abilities were was pretty cool. Everything was just clicking that day. Totally the opposite happened at the Portland Marathon, which was a slog from nearly the beginning; but I am proud to have stuck that one out and PRed by a second.

And the final piece of the puzzle of ending this year on a high note was my run this Saturday with Coach Jim. I didn't think Alejandro or anybody I knew what going to be there. For some odd reason I went to bed early Friday night and woke up Saturday morning at 7am feeling motivated to go run. I thought for sure I'd skip it and go run by myself on Sunday. For whatever reason, I showed up, Ale ended up coming (only for six miles though) and I had a great 14.5 mile run with the group at 9:10/mile. Really great way to kick off the weekend.

To bigger and better things in 2015!