Looking back on your running year

It’s that time of year where everyone is posting their run-related or fitness accomplishments. How many miles they ran, how many PRs were achieved, how many pounds of epsom salt they used (ok maybe that’s just me).

I personally ran more miles this year than I ever have before. I aced more workouts and completed more long runs with quality miles…but did that translate into big PRs? For me, it did not.

I’ve been running for over 10 years now - starting as an absolute beginner just wanting to complete a 5k and working my way up to multiple marathons. In the beginning of my running career, PRs were easy to come by. I could take 3-4 minutes off my 5k time in a matter of weeks or months. Now that I am more experienced, those wins are harder to come by.

But what constitutes a ‘win’ for me these days?

Sure, I would have absolutely LOVED to have achieved my time goals for my ‘A’ races. Looking back over my year, I am proud that I stopped letting workouts intimidate me (looking at you, 800 repeats). I am proud that I recognized that a fall marathon wouldn’t be in the cards for me due to a busy schedule that wouldn’t allow me to train for a marathon the way I would be proud to train for a marathon. I am proud of the way I raced some of the ‘B’ races this year - ones that were on the schedule help my ‘A’ race goals.

So when you are looking over your Strava stats and Instagram posts this month, if you don’t like what you see in terms of times or miles, dig a little deeper and I bet you’ll find much to be proud of.