JD's 2013 in Review

Well, I must say it was a good year and I accomplished a lot.  Coming off Achilles tendonitis issues in 2012, I did not want to miss any races this year and may have overdone it with the race schedule but hey, life is too short.  I ran 21 races this year and a little over 1000 miles during my training runs.  The highlight for me can be easily summed up with one word:  100k.  I ran my first 100k this year at Oil Creek State Park even though I had never ran more than 40+ miles a week and no more than 31 miles in one session.  The course was as brutal as it was beautiful and it couldn't of been done without my wife Heather who paced me the last 50k - I finished the race where a lot of people didn't and was pretty proud of that.

I also PR'd a marathon in which I really didn't expect to.  I ran a hilly marathon (Drake Well Marathon) in Titusville, PA and got a 3:49/8:45 pace.  The first 10 miles of that course is up and down which take a lot out of your legs but for some reason, I really felt good that day.

 Another highlight happened during one weekend in April.  I ran the Red Shoe 5k and got a 20:00/6:27 pace and came in first in my age group and ran the Cherry Blossom 10 miler the next day and got a 1:13:05 which is about 4 minutes faster than my previous and only 10 miler (Army 10 miler in 2011).

The worst race of the year was the North Face 50k, it was 95 degress that day and I really wanted to DNF but didn't and I think it helped.  I think I ran that one in a little over 7 hours, clearly a horrible day but you can't always have great runs.

And how can I forget the La Sportiva Hill Climb in Vail, CO - wow, just breathing is the hard part, let alone running the 7.5 miles up to the top of the ski hill which sits at 10,200 feet.  For a lowlander, I think I did ok and had a blast.  I definitely want to do another run like that this year, maybe a half marathon, don't know yet.

Another race that I was pretty scared going into was "America's Toughest Road Marathon" or the Blue Ridge marathon which has 7,430 of elevation change and finished with a time of 4:29:47.  I ran that with another running friend of mine and it felt like a 50k.  I surprised myself this year when I ran the heritage 5k in 20:58 6 days after the Oil Creek 100k.  I don't know why I did it, I shouldn't have...my left foot was still sprained but thought I was tough or something.  Either way, I enjoyed that run too and got first in my age group there as well.

Lastly, a race I just ran for fun was called the Three Fox Vineyards 5k in Delaplane, VA.  I came in third overall in that race and was extremely hilly.

Of course, all these races wouldn't be fun unless I had my boys and heather to run with - until next year...