2010 in Review

2010 was good to me. I only logged 1465 miles, down from 1856 in 2009. I did not put in a ton of miles, but my workouts were of a higher quality and my overall distance per run and pace per run were both significantly up from 2009.

I ran 4 ultras in 2010:

• Umstead 100
• Promise Land
• Laurel Highlands
• Mountain Masochist

Umstead was my second attempt at a 100 and my second dnf, so right now I am 0/2. More on rectifying that situation in a later post. I ran my best race at Umstead with a PR for 50 miles, but in the end did not have enough in the tank to start the last lap, so at 87.5 miles I called it a race. My feet were beat up bad and my body had shut down. I got the idea in my head of running under 24 hours and simply went to fast.

Promise Land is always a great race and this year was no different. I was not fully recovered from Umstead, especially my feet. I was still able to set a 18 minute PR.

Laurel Highlands was longer this year by 7 or 8 miles because of a detour around a removed foot bridge. I had a good start, but my feet really suffered (probably still not right from spring races) and I walked in the last 25 miles or so. A good experience, but not how I had planned it.

Mountain Masochist was, as always, a great event. I picked up some a new brand and style of shoe and took the chance of wearing them for the start of the race. My dad was crewing so I could change out if need be. It was a gamble but it paid off (I do not recommend new shoes and new socks on race day!). I changed socks once early on and had no hot spots or blisters the entire day. My feet felt great for having run 50+ miles. I set a course PR too.

Hopefully 2011 will be even better.