Well, not really. I’m built too short to the ground to see very far but I have covered a lot of miles in 2016.
How many of you remember that song, anyway? It has just always resonated with me. Let’s give it a quick listen~It’s hard to beat The Who!
Back to running:
Reflecting on 2016, I tried to think of the highlights of this year.
January I was in Jackson, Mississippi running the Mississippi Blues Marathon. I had been fortunate enough to be selected as a Race Ambassador for the Blues~a true honor! The Blues is THE best marathon in Mississippi. I was using this race as a training run for a March 50 miler. It was so much fun to meet with so many Mississippi running friends!
February was a huge taper. I thought that February would never end. I’ve never tapered graciously. HA!
March was the MS50 Trail Run in Laurel, Mississippi. I so very seriously love this race!!!
In April, I drove down to Austin, Texas. Here I met some long time, online running friends for the first time in real life (IRL)! What a fun weekend!!! We played and ran the Austin 10/20. This was my first race ever in Texas.
May, I ran a Half Marathon in Ridgeland, Mississippi. This was my sister’s very first Half Marathon and she asked me to go with her. My “instructions” were to run my own race but be there to get her finish line pic. “Yes, Ma’am.”
Again the best part was the night before the race, meeting up with a bunch of Mississippi running friends. I swear, getting to see everybody again~it totally makes the weekend!
…and there’s always me freezing before the race. Brrrr!!!
This is my sister~She ran a terrific race! BOOM!!!
June found MFH and myself traveling to Duluth, Minnesota, for Grandma’s Marathon. I had trained pretty hard for this race and was looking forward to a sweet PR. The running gods did not smile on me in Duluth. I kind of took my Mississippi weather with me to Minnesota. When I reached the HM timing mats, they had already black flagged the race! It. Was. HOT! Wowzers~but it was hot! Beautiful course! I need to go back and run it again and this time leave my Mississippi weather in Mississippi. LOL!!!
That was probably my hardest marathon ever.
The highlight of the trip to Minnesota was getting to meet my IRun4 buddy, Aiden and his family!!! What a treat!!! #IRun4Aiden
July was the Peachtree 10K in Atlanta, Georgia. Believe it or not, it was cooler in Atlanta than it had been the month before in Minnesota. How funny is that?
Again, we (MFH~My Favorite Husband) and I met up with running friends in the Atlanta area.
In July I made a coaching change. I was super, super tired (and after looking at 2016 so far, it’s no wonder!) and I needed fresh eyes. I was literally running myself into the ground with high training miles at high intensity and still racing often.’
My new coach trained by HR/Time instead of Pace/Distance. It was a welcome change. July and August were spent helping me recover from extreme fatigue while still keeping me fit enough for the Berlin Marathon in September. Very low miles (for me) these two months and lower intensity really did the trick! I feel like a new person. YAY!
September was the Berlin Marathon. This was the second year in a row for me to run this race. I loved it so much in 2015 that it deserved a repeat. MFH traveled with me in 2015. We had celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary that year and the trip to Germany was our Anniversary present!
In 2016, MFH didn’t want to go back so my sister traveled with me. We had so much fun!!! Again, we met up with bunches of running friends from all around the world.
October~you know what? I don’t think I raced in October! How about that! Just training miles. LOTS of training miles. LOL!!! 100 Mile Training was in high gear by now and I was spending lots of hours on the road running and running and running…..
November, MFH and I traveled to South Carolina for a Half Marathon (for me) and a 5K (for him). Again(!) we met up with a great group of running friends and had a wonderful time!
Next month is December. Whew! What a year and just one more race to go.
In a few weeks, I’ll be running a 50 Miler in Texas. Yup! Back to Texas! This time it will be the Brazos Bend 50M. I’ll be running with my coach and other teammates from Renegade Endurance. Good people, Renegades! This promises to be tons of fun!!!
All of this to say, on Thanksgiving Day, I passed the 2000 mile mark for miles run in 2016. BOOM!!! What an exciting and fun year this has been!
So, in a sense, I HAVE seen many, many miles this year. Miles running and miles traveling. I wouldn’t trade a single one of them for anything!
Happy running, all!!!
#IRun4Aiden
#teamZensah
#AbbottWMM
#ChafeX
#areyourenegade
#oisellevolee