2011 ~ My Jekkyl and Hyde running year

Last day of 2011 - time does fly.  Looking back at this year from a running perspective is bittersweet.  I've done my best running to date in 2011, but also have had a nagging injury which has pretty much taken me out of competition for the last 4 months. 

It's fun to re-live the glory days though, so here's a recap of my 2011 year in running:

January - March 2011

Michelle (my running buddy and neighbor) and I ran throughout the winter.  Despite her having some knee issues we came into the new year in great shape for training.  We started training for a marathon in late February using a plan adapted from Runners World Smart Coach. 

In March we ran our first race - the Shamrock run 15k.

This is an awesome race - always super crowded because it kind of kicks off the racing season here in Portland.  Michelle and I have run it together for the last 3 years.  It's a tough course (see elevation profile below), going up and over the Terwilliger hills before finishing downtown on the waterfront.  I ran it this year in 1:22:08 (PR on this course for me) which is a 8:49 pace. 

Shamrock run elevation profile

April - May 2011

We continued on with marathon training.  Meeting some new friends to run with, and checking out some great new places to run.  We did a beautiful point to point 22 mile training run on the Banks to Vernonia trail with our friends and Clark the water carrying wonder dog. 

May brought the Hippie Chick half marathon and my current half marathon PR - 1:48:58!  Race report here (also my first post ever on this blog!).  This was a fun race with some great ladies.

June was the marathon  - the inagural Vancouver USA Marathon (recap here) . We had a great training cycle and everything went so well - coming together perfectly for the race.  My goal had been to break 4 hours and I killed it - running a 3:54 and another PR.  I ran the race exactly as I had planned, and I was really proud of myself.

July - August 2011

Unfortunately, immediately after this race is when I got Plantar Fasciitis.  I had planned to run the LaCamas Lake half marathon in July, but had a DNS instead.  I started pool running and rehabbing my foot - managing to get it under control enough to run Hood to Coast (my most favoritest of all races) with my team.

We did a little running:

We did a little celebrating:

We had a great time!

September - present:

Immediately after H2C I started training for another half marathon, but PF reared its ugly head again, and this unfortunately ended up being another DNS.  And that was it for my racing year - I've spent the end of this year rehabbing my foot.  

I've never had an injury like PF.   When I first started rehabbing I was very optimistic about it, thinking I'd just "get it taken care of" and then I'd be back to running again.  But, this hasn't turned out to be the case, and in the last month my rehab motivation has waned and a little depression set in.

But new year/new outlook right?  As I said in this post, I'm going find my inner athlete again.  For 2012 I'm looking forward to cross training and I am determined that I will be running again as well!

I hope everyone has a Happy Happy New Year!  Looking forward to 2012!