Running feets

Every week my running group has a section entitled "Running Feets".  So today, I am going to put my running feets, year of 2014 in review.

My goals for the year were to complete the NYRR 9+1 to gain automatic entry into the 2015 NYC marathon.  It seemed like a very, NY runner thing to do.  The +1 is volunteering for one of the races, which I, of course, put off until the very last second and had to schlep out to Brooklyn and it was a mess for many reasons, but I did enjoy it.  I will say, I didn't quite think about the time commitment that it was going to require, or the financial one either, since I guess I sort of thought the races were free??  However, it was definitely a great experience and I have never really run in this many races and of such varying distances and with groups of people.  I also got to spend a lot of time in Central Park and tour parts of the boroughs, although I didn't complete the borough series because I was out of town for the Bronx race and then basically bailed on the Staten Island one because, well, it was October and it was really too far and too much of a PITA to get to.  It's the forgotten borough for a reason.  I also realized that I am still a competitive person at heart, even when there is nothing at stake other than getting the fastest time that I could.  Even on days that I *swore* I wasn't going to race and was just going to run.

My fastest 5K pace was 6:48 min/mile
My fastest 10K pace was 7:15 min/mile
My fastest (and only) 15K was 7:21 min/mile
My fastest half marathon pace (although not with the NYRR) was 7:34 min/mile.

I think you can see the trend...

I am definitely proud of myself for doing them all and for developing into a somewhat competitive runner (not just myself, but actually placing in my age group in some races and usually coming in quite high for my age group.  The female 35-39 is a very popular age group).  I would like to say I am entirely enthusiastic to train for the NYC marathon, but have resolved to run it for a better marathon experience, and nothing else.  (yeah right).

My race bibs and shirts from the races. I apparently didn't hold onto my first race bib for the gray shirted 10K, but have the shirt to prove it.  I also stopped taking all of the shirts after a while because I really didn't need this many.  I also have a bright yellow volunteer shirt that will match absolutely nothing.

These were my bibs/shirts for the 5 half marathons that I ran.