2010 - The Year in Running

2010 was a tremendous year in regards to my running. Most of it was not all that great in regards to performance, but from August on it was simply fantastic. It took a lot of patience, better eating, hard work, and also knowing when not to work hard. I'm very happy with my accomplishments in 2010 and I look forward to keep going in 2011.

Race Log 2010

1/1 - Hangover Classic 10K, 42:07
1/9 - Fudgcicle 3.17M, 20:28
1/16 - Fudgcicle 3.17M, 20:27
1/23 - Fudgcicle 3.17M, 20:34
2/13 - Bradford Valentine 5M, 34:05
2/21 - Freeze Your Buns 5K, 21:02

These 6 races were in a period of non-serious training and the results show that. The extremely slow time at Bradford was due to running while recovering from illness. I geared towards the New Bedford Half at this point and started getting a little more serious...

2/28 - Hyannis 10K (actually 6.35M), 41:55
3/15 - New Bedford Half Marathon, 1:35:40
4/11 - Great Bay Half Marathon, DNF
4/20 - Good Times 5K, 20:56
4/24 - Hampton Rotary 5K, 20:32
4/25 - Community 5K for Autism Awareness, 19:57

I went through a dismal stretch where I bombed at the New Bedford Half and then decided to redeem myself at the Great Bay Half where I got sick and didn't even finish the race. Needless to say I was in very rough shape. However, later on my 5K times improved from 20:56 to 19:57, so there was something to look forward to even though it was still way off my 18:33 PR

5/2 - Bentley School 5K, 19:09
5/29 - Sons of Italy 5M, 32:43
6/6 - Rhody 5K, 19:44
6/12 - St. Patrick's 5K, 18:54
6/29 - Good Times 5K, 19:17
7/4 - LL Bean 10K, 40:37

I had a good stretch from May to the Fourth. My 5K got down to 18:54 and I ran fairly decent on the difficult LL Bean 10K course in Freeport, Maine. I still wanted to get under 40 minutes, so I wasn't entire satisfied. Unfortunately it would get worse before it got better.

7/9 - Hillsboro Balloon Festival 5K, 20:16
7/13 - River Rivals Track Meet 1 Mile, 5:36
7/27 - Yankee Homecoming 10 Mile, 1:46:36
8/1 - High Street Mile, 5:29
8/3 - River Rivals Track Meet 2 Mile, 12:24; 1 Mile, 5:52
8/7 - Sandown Old Town Days 5 Miler, 31:53
8/10 - River Rivals Track Meet 1 Mile, 5:37
8/17 - River Rivals Track Meet 1 Mile, 5:47
8/24 - Good Times 5K, 18:55

The Yankee Homecoming was almost as bad as the Great Bay Half earlier in the year. I got sick mid-race and managed to finish, but it was demoralizing. I did some mile work at the River Rivals Track Series instead of doing a lot of Good Times races this summer. It certainly helped my speed, but still had a tough time on the track. I did well at the High Street Mile, ran very solid at Sandown, and got the 5K back under 19 minutes, so I managed to get some momentum going into XC season and marathon training.

8/29 - GMAA Scholarship Run 5K (XC), 19:27
9/1 - CMS Devens 5K, 20:28
9/8 - Roger H. Schonning 5K, 19:32
9/18 - Pelham Old Home Days, 18:55
9/25 - Codfish Bowl 8K (XC), 33:06
10/16 - Topsfield XC Festival (8K), 33:16

This stretch of running put things in place for some speed. I had some trouble in some of the XC races, but the training was solid. It set me up for a huge stretch of PR's en route to Philly.

10/23 - Peabody Police Charity 5K, 18:14
10/31 - White Mountain Milers Half Marathon, 1:26:59
11/6 - Winnekenni Trail Run (4M), 26:07
11/7 - USATF-NE XC Championships (10K), 39:34
11/21 - Philadelphia Marathon, 2:56:39
11/25 - Feaster Five (8K), 30:15
11/27 - Run Off That Turkey Trot 5K, 19:12 (Altamont, NY)
1/1 - Hangover Classic 10K, 39:28

Even though it was technically a 2011 race, I put in the Hangover Classic again to make it go full circle. I ran the Hangover Classic last year over 2 1/2 minutes slower. I'm in an entirely different class right now and I am very, very optimistic about the future. In 2010, I improved my PR in the mile, 5K, 8K, 10K, 10 Mile (while running the half), half marathon, and marathon. I am sure I will improve on all of these times in 2011, and I already have in the 10K. The scary thing about it was I would have easily ran in the mid-38's on a better structured course.

I ran 40 races last year and I think that may be the most I've done in a year. I'm sure I'll run close to that number again this year. I'm looking forward to Boston in April, some fast 5-10K racing after that, and possibly a fall marathon, so it will be a very active year.