Well…that about wraps it up for 2013! It has been a bit of a doozy with lots of ups and downs but nicely everything is moving in a nice positive direction! Basically I am heading into my 4th Goofy Challenge in the best shape I have ever been for one and seriously have the potential to bust my marathon PR of 4:15:01 that I set back in 2005 in the pre-kids time of my life. I am also the most motivated and in the most positive head space I have ever been in going into any running race.
So with that in mind let’s look back on the year and do a bit of a review to see how things went.
I missed quite a few training miles back in the spring and early summer – mostly my motivation was in the tank but I found it again and have been able to finish the year strong while still making constant improvements. I had 1580.75 miles planned / scheduled in 2013 including racing miles but only just hit 1400 in the end (as of New Years Eve). Most of those missed miles were in the spring and early summer (and some in early winter when the weather turned bad and the treadmill gave up) but I managed to chew some of them back in the fall. By the time of the Manitoba Marathon in June I was 225 behind on my miles but I made back over 65 miles between July and mid October before losing a few more in November and early December. Even with the missed miles though I think I made steady progress right up until the treadmill died and weather outside turned sour – I regressed a bit during that period until the treadmill was fixed but I have made some of that back.
My weight has moved around a fair bit but I am ending the year down around 15 pounds from the beginning of the year and while I did not hit my goals there I am still doing very well. All things considered I am happy with my weight but will keep pushing it down to get to my goal weight. Considering I am down around 40 pounds from my starting weight of 257 from September 2012 – I am proud of myself here even though there is more work to do.
Races this year:
- Walt Disney World Half Marathon – as part of my 3rd Goofy Challenge – 2:20:35 – slowed by crowds
- Walt Disney World Full Marathon (6th full marathon) – as part of my 3rd Goofy Challenge – 5:25:54 – pretty rough heat that day
- Winnipeg Police Service Half Marathon (WPS Half) – 1:56:13 – first time since 2005 I managed to get under 2 hours on a half marathon
- Manitoba Marathon – 7th full marathon – 4:40:07 – got pretty toasty near the end as well
- Run for Diabetes Research Half Marathon – Winnipeg – 1:49:54 – major improvement over May. I was ecstatic about this one – with such a major improvement over May and where I have been for quite a few years now this race really changed my mindset and motivated the hell out of me.
- Fort Garry Rotary Half Marathon – 1:47:50 – 2 minute improvement in 3 weeks – that is pretty good!
- Winnipeg Fire and Paramedic Services Half Marathon (WFPS half) – 1:47:14 – still 63 seconds off of PR of 1:46:11. But a good improvement from the race just a few weeks previous but not as good as I would have liked. Got into Half Fanatics at this point! – #5180 (http://www.marathonmaniacsdb.com/halffanatics/HFMyRaces.asp?hf=5180)
Getting into Half Fanatics was a bit of surprise – hadn’t really thought about it much. I had seen people with the gear at various races but figured they were out of my league but I did manage to make it in this fall (granted at the lowest level but still in!). Very cool. #5180 – http://www.marathonmaniacsdb.com/halffanatics/HFMyRaces.asp?hf=5180
Also this blog is now just over a year old – first post was December 5th, 2012. I started out using the site as more of a personal log which probably isn’t all that interesting for lots of people that would come to the site but hopefully I am improving in that respect.
I also got on Twitter this year (@biggoofyrunner) to help advertise the site more and to interact with other runDisney lovers and other running bloggers. Without Twitter I’m not sure I would have found out about some great social media runners and been impacted by their amazing positive energy. See the side links for links to some great sites.
So yeah – like I said at the beginning of the post – the year has had some ups and downs but for my health, my running and my weight things have generally been positive with constant and steady improvements. This makes me feel very hopeful and full of energy going into the Goofy Challenge in January and for 2014 in general.
Awesome!
I will also be putting up another post shortly where I lay out some of my thoughts and ideas for 2014 and going into 2015. Really not plans etched in stone yet but there are lots of things I would like to do in 2014 and I will lay those thoughts out in that post.
Leave a Reply