What a year this was! I ran 1802 miles with no major injuries, no major illnesses. I don’t even remember a bad cold in 2014. Even better were the PRs I set. Of course the bar I had set for myself wasn’t all that high, so maybe I just needed a couple of injury free years and some consistent training. But whatever it was, it worked. Cut a few seconds off my 4-mile time in the only 4-miler I ran. Then came a series of 10k PRs. In April I cut 3:05 off my previous PR, then cut another 34 seconds off at the Oakley NY Mini and another minute off my PR at the Queens 10k, which I wasn’t really racing. It was supposed to be the beginning of a long training run. But because I wasn’t nervous and worked up about doing “well” in the race, I just tucked in behind some guy and ran. At mile 5 I looked at my watch and realized I could PR. I stopped dead in my tracks wondering if I should just slow down so I didn’t wreck my long run or if I should go for it. I went. Came in 3rd in my age group.
Then there was the Brooklyn Half. It was the weekend of my 40th college reunion, and I wanted to drive up to South Hadley, Massachusetts in triumph. The two previous attempts at that race were utter disasters, so I wasn’t quite sure what would happen this year. Except that I was really prepared. All I wanted was to break 2 hours for the first time in my life. And I did. 1:58:39.
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