As is now customary, I'm reviewing last year by waiting until I'm a third of the way through this year. This time in 2017 I set myself some goals and it's worth revisiting the list and setting some new ones.
2017 was a really good year for my running. I ran further and faster than I had hoped, and had a heap of fun doing so. Below is for my own self reflection but you might find it somewhat interesting too.
Checking in on my 2017 Goals
I think it's safe to say I hit my running goals in 2017. The only exception was the 10km, which I basically gave up on trying while focusing on longer races.
- Smash the trails. Done. All of my best runs were on trails this year.
- Get a road half marathon time under 1h45m. During the 2017 Great Ocean Road Half Marathon I hit 1:42 at the half marathon point. Pretty bloody happy with that.
- Finish a bunch of trail half marathons I don't think I did this, officially, but ran a heap of 20+km runs on the trails. After May, the majority of my long runs were on trail rather than road.
- Get a 10km time under 45 minutes Didn't get there, mostly because I didn't really race any 10ks. In the Eltham Fun Run I ran the nominally 10k (really 9.7 or so) in 44:51 so I guess that counts?
- Get a parkrun time below 21 minutes Achieved a 20:41 in July. Promptly got sick a day later.
- Run something longer than a half marathon Ultimately I had many runs over 21km n 2017, but the obvious standouts were two fantastic races: Two Bays Trail Run (28km), and the Surf Coast Trail Marathon (43km). Very happy with both of these.
Goals for 2018
- Run a 50k. I'm signed up for Ultra Trail Australia 50k in May.
- Run another Marathon. Go below 5 hours if it's a trail run, or below 4 if it's on the road.
- Get the parkrun 5k time below 20 minutes
- Find a way to run these long races with less impact on my family
In early 2018 I ran the Two Bays Trail Race again and took 10 minutes of my 2017 time. As noted above I'm already signed up for the UTA50k and just about to begin tapering after a few very intense months of training. Following UTA, I'm signed up for the Wonderland Run 36k in the Grampians during Winter which leaves some time in the calendar for another race in October or November. I'm not to keen on running the Melbourne Marathon (which falls in October, and is the obvious choice for a road marathon) and I'm very keen to spend less time away from my kids... if you've got any advice I'd love to hear it!
Now, that's two blog posts in a couple of days. I better log out for a few months!
Photo: Halfway through the 2017 Wonderland Run 8k. I was meant to tackle the 20k distance but came down with a horrid lurgy all through August. I'll return in 2018 for another go...