Final Thoughts on 2015

I can’t believe that it’s already December 31st! I hardly feel prepared to adequately sum up 2015 right now. However, for a final post, I thought I would look at a few things.

Yesterday, I looked over my post from January 1st of this year to see those goals I set back then. There are a few I’d like to look at. First up…I wanted to run 1,000 miles this year. So, how did I do??? I ran for 780  (which includes the 3 I will run today). So, 780 out of 1,000. That would grade out to a C+. However, that’s not the end of the story. This is the most miles I’ve logged ever in my life! I started taking my running seriously back in 2013. So, this is the end of my third year of running. Here’s how I’ve done over that span…

2013 – 636 Miles

2014 – 583 Miles

2015 – 780 Miles

So, even though I didn’t make my goal, I did make significant improvement over 2014. It’s always good to be trending up!

Here’s the one that I really wanted to happen. Instead, it was the year of 2nd bests at every running distance.

5K – Rock n Roll San Diego – 2nd fastest time

10K – Disneyland 10K – 2nd fastest time

Half Marathon – Rock n Roll San Diego Half Marathon – 2nd fastest time

Marathon – Bank of America Chicago Marathon – 2nd fastest time

What’s interesting about these results is that I got my 2nd fastest marathon time at the Asics Los Angeles Marathon in March (because it was my 2nd full marathon). Then, I beat that time by nearly 20 minutes at the Bank of America Chicago Marathon. It felt good to be out and chasing fast times as many of the races I finished this year. Here’s another interesting stat from the year. Here are the number of races I finished by distance…

5K – 2

10K – 3

Half Marathon – 6

Marathon – 2

That’s 13 races for the year! In 2014, I ran 10 races for the year.  One thing I laughed at when I re-read that post from January 1st is the list of races I planned on racing this year…

Inaugural Star Wars 10K

Inaugural Star Wars Half Marathon

Surf City USA Half Marathon

Los Angeles Marathon

Angels Baseball Foundation 5K

Rock n Roll San Diego Half Marathon

Cypress 10K

Awesome 80’s 5K – Pasadena

Rock n Roll Los Angeles Half Marathon

Avengers Super Heroes Half Marathon (if there is the rumored challenge with a 10K, I’ll probably do that)

Well, I did all of these except the Angels Baseball Foundation 5K and the Cypress 10K. Also, I mentioned that I was only planning on running the Disneyland 10K this year. However, the lure of that 10th Anniversary Disneyland Half Marathon bling was too much to pass on.

It was worth it!

I wanted to run in one of these marathons and guess what???

I ran the Bank of America Chicago Marathon!!! To be honest, this was the only race I even tried to get into. I missed the window to apply for the lottery with both the NYC Marathon and MCM Marathon. Not only did I apply for the lottery for the Chicago Marathon, but…

I ran as a charity runner for the very first time. Adoption-Link and Holt International were two adoption agencies that teamed up as 1 charity for the marathon. I raised over $1,600 for these two adoption agencies! Many thanks again to those of you who made donations.

This picture represents just a few of the many children who benefited from this fundraising campaign. In total, the Holt International – Adoption-Link team raised $17,605.00 this year!

You should know that your time and effort goes such a very long way to make it possible for

these beautiful babies to find their way to their forever families.  The sad fact is that without people like you who are willing to help, many of these kids would not survive infancy. – Jeremy Capell from Adoption-Link