2012 Racing Recap

Each year I think it is important to reflect on your accomplishments not only to remind yourself of success you have had but to find lessons learned so that you can enter the new year with renewed hungry and goals.  As a full year’s body of work, 2012 turned out pretty well.  I was over 3700 miles for the year, healthy most of the year, had lots of fun on runs, met new folks and raced respectably.

Huntersville Half Marathon 12/8/12 3 6:11 1:21:11 – Despite my slow time, I competed hard and really enjoyed this race. Learned that running a half out of shape and for “fun” is a heck of a lot harder than I thought J

Charlotte Southpark Turkey Trot NC 11/22/12 10 27:10 -Yes! I still have some gears!  Got double chicked but by 2 nationally recognized talents.  For a race that I had no expectations and had not trained for, I was very pleased with the outcome.  Validated that of the two shitty options at TR, the DNF was lesser of the evils.

Thunder Road Marathon - DNF at mile 18.5 – The notorious double back after a bad marathon.  ALWAYS a terrible idea as proved yet again.  Could I have finished and suffered like MCM?  Maybe but while I hate for a DNF to be an option, it saved my legs with about 2-3 weeks recovery.

Marine Corps Marathon DC 10/28/12 7:20 3:12:09 – End of a torturous training cycle that netted me nothing other than a grueling last 14 miles.  I am proud of this race because I had to suffer and gut it out to finish.  I learned about about training reflecting back on this cycle.

Wipro San Francisco Marathon CA 7/29/12 5 41 6:34 2:52:23 – was supposed to be a “fun” marathon. It was and gorgeous course which is why I ran it but learned that running a marathon is painful the last 10K no matter what.

Grand Canyon Rim to Rim - 6/17/2012 – not a race but an 8 hour adventure I will never forget.  Huge thanks to Mr. Jaskot for helping make it out of the Canyon.

June Track Series NC (Myers Park) - Ran 4.34 mile which keeps my streak alive of running faster than my age (4.39 was my target).  Also ran a sub 10 min (9.58) 3200m on a separate Tues during the track series.

King Tiger 5K NC 6/2/12 9 5.21 16:38   - Ran this one as I had never done it before.  Got smoked.  Just never had any mojo in this one.

Brooklyn Half-Marathon NY 5/19/12 3 38 5:40 1:14:15 - life time PR!  Felt great

Bulldog 5K NC 4/28/12 1 5:32 17:12 – got a win less than 24 hours since win the night before.

Waxhaw Town & Country 5K NC 4/27/12 1 5:29 17:05  - Did just enough to win as I was planning another 5k the next morning.

Elizabeth 8K NC 4/21/12 1 5:28 27:1   - wonderful race.  Pushed but not to the edge.  Got the W!

Charlotte RaceFest Half NC 4/14/12 2  5:25 33:43 – Life time 10k PR on a tough course!

Get Your Rear In Gear 5K 3/10/2012 1 5.20 16.34 – Ran under the alias Art Monk.  Was a last minute decision.  Felt great and ran well.

Charlotte 10 Miler NC 2/25/12 3 5:43 57:18 – Ughh. Got my tail kicked in this one.  Was 3^rd but I was not happy with my performance.

Frosty 50K NC 1/7/12 1 6:57 3:36:07 – Got lucky Went thru marathon around 2.58 and as a slow year for winning time.  The last few years fellas have gone thru the marathon in the mid to low 2.40s but a win is a win!

2012 - Figuring It Out

There are a lot of Charlotte running topics I could have selected to end the year on but the one that stuck out to me as a theme for 2012 is Figuring It Out.  What exactly do I mean by that?  The phrases takes on a few forms for me.

1) Our Charlotte Running Club board in 2012 started to click in year 3 with business as usual.  We were able to get additional technology in place, assign some rotating responsibilities to better share the workload and we started to look towards bigger objectives.  We brought on 4 new members to the board who appear like they will be active leaders.  We added new officers to the club. We figured out how to make the club sustainable and find a balance that supports the board members in leading but still leaving time for their day jobs, family and their running.

2) Several male and female runners discovered just how good they can be.  The ones I know of consistently trained with a group and then saw the results in races.  They realized they were just as good and in some cases better than the folks they training with which provided them with the confidence to push the boundaries even further.  I look forward to a couple of these folks having a phenomenal 2013.  The Figured out they can run and compete with the big dogs.

3) Another set of runners in Charlotte experienced injury set backs or family changes that altered their running routine.  It forced several of them to re-evaluate priorities and work thru a better model of running/family/job balance.  As a result, most all of them have a template that is much more sustainable for ongoing enjoyment of the sport and will be able to share in the challenges and fun of running in the upcoming years because they figured out how to make time for running in their life.

4) On a personal note I figured out two things in 2012:
a) I did more self experimenting as a runner on my own training to understand first hand how the body will reacted.  While each runner handles physical and mental demands slightly different, I think going thru the training myself ultimately makes me a better coach which is part of my running transition plan from chasing personal in races to helping others achieve their racing goals.
b)  I realized over  the last half of 2012 that father time is finally setting in.  Even as recent as this Spring I was running some life time PRs however, quickly my body is changing.  I need to be aware and monitor my training closer.  The training I did years ago is probably not realistic for me.  PRs are probably just about out of touch and as a result, I need to strive for ways to stay motivated to compete.  I love to compete so it really is just a matter of re-adjusting my expectations about what I can accomplish these days.  So I have figured out my body is slipping but I have some more exploring to get the formula right in 2013.

Thank you to all of you I ran with in 2012 and supported not only the club by me personally in my running adventures.  It was another memorable year and I look forward to a wonderful 2013.