2015 in Review

These year end posts are always a little daunting, but they're hardest when I'm not really ready to say goodbye to the year. This time, I feel ready. 2015 was fine, but it wasn't a highlight year for me. I've been looking forward to 2016 for months now...so it's definitely time to bid 2015 adieu.

This year I ran twelve races, including my second full marathon and multiple "distance challenges" (Gasparilla and the virtual Runner's World Festival hat trick). What I lacked in speed, I made up for in mental strength and stamina. I pushed myself to new limits this year, and came away better for it.

January
Highlight: January marked my 5 year runniversary, which felt like a pretty big deal.
Noteworthy Post: I dug through old photos and data and found information about my first-ever race, a small, church-organized 5k that I ran without expectations and just for the cause. It's interesting to see how much things have changed for me since then, at least where racing is involved.

February
Highlight: Running a colleague's first 5k with her - it was extremely emotional and wonderful to see her finish. I'll never forget experiencing that with her. A close second would be Gasparilla Weekend with Kristin and Mari. The distance challenge and back-to-back races were difficult, but made me feel like Superwoman!

Noteworthy Post: My recap of the A1A half marathon. I don't think I've ever felt happier at a race than I did that weekend.

March
Highlight: Getting to play volleyball on a faculty team against other schools in our network. I really need to consider joining a league, because I miss it!
Noteworthy Post: My slightly snarky post on reasons I won't follow certain blogs still makes me laugh, and still rings true.

April
Highlight: Running with Kristin and her daughter and Meg and her step-daughter in the Girls on the Run 5k. Being out there just for fun and seeing all those active kids was so fulfilling!

Noteworthy Post: Remember that time a drunk teenage couple parked their car in our driveway and we had it towed? Ah, good times, good times.

May
Highlight: My annual trip to DC with my students was definitely a highlight, as was seeing my oldest friend get married.
Noteworthy Post: This one's a tie between my thoughts on word choice and things you'll find in a runner's mouth. I had forgotten I ran to Celine Dion this spring and wasn't ashamed to admit it!

June
Highlight: I received a Teacher of the Year Award, which was humbling and surprising, and I got to see some of my fellow All-Star Teachers in Tampa! It was a good month to be a teacher.

Noteworthy Post: I'd been debating posting about my favorite picture ever since it was taken, and June 2015 I finally did. I'm glad, too. Everyone was so supportive and I hope my story spoke to others. It was a scary post to make public, but I feel a lot freer and stronger since doing so.

July
Highlight: Traveling to St. Croix to see Scott and help him move in was a nice summer trip to celebrate Matt's and my anniversary.
Noteworthy Post: Matt and I celebrated our five year anniversary, and it was a nice excuse to look back on how young we looked and how pretty our wedding was!

August
Highlight: I found gluten free Cheerios at my grocery store! I know, it seems like such a silly thing, but there's no accounting for what makes us happy!
Noteworthy Post: My response to things non-runners say, because very few of us were just born runners from day one, and we've all been there.

September
Highlight: I'd like to pretend this month never happened. Honestly, there were no highlights, and the entire month I was depressed and moody and completely emotionally absent...And looking back at my blog archives for September brings back the pain of Archie's death as if it only just happened. This month sucked.
Noteworthy Post: Matt answered questions about my running, and he did a pretty good job!

October
Highlight: I hit 100 miles in a single month for the first time ever, and I was stoked! I ran my longest solo long-run to date, and Matt had Chattajack, which was a crazy adventure and a definite highlight for both of us, and my little sis got married. Talk about a full, good month!

Noteworthy Post: I let you guys see a little bit behind the scenes of what I'm really like in real life. Now that Megan and Kristina have seen my home and spent some quality time with me, they can verify if these things are true!

November
Highlight: I hit another mileage milestone - running 20 miles totally solo. This was definitely a strong training year!
Noteworthy Post: Despite not meeting my goals for BDR, I still stand behind the determination and self-assurance in this post.

December
Highlight: Running BDR...mostly because I got to spend quality time with my sister and two of my favorite bloggers.

Noteworthy Post: Looking back on my thoughts post-race, after I'd had some time to come to terms with BDR's outcome, I'm really proud of how far I've come as a runner and as a person. I feel mentally stronger and more confident than ever before, and I think that comes across pretty clearly in how I talk about my successes and setbacks.

Looking back, I can see that 2015 was mostly a fairly solid year. I do think this year made me a stronger runner mentally, and physically in some ways, but I lost a lot of speed; at times, I really coasted.

I did find this year that I can knock out a respectable half marathon time without too much training, which made me happy, but I also learned that no matter how prepared I am, sometimes race day conditions will get the best of me.

I'm ready to take the lessons I learned from 2015 into the new year and make 2016 a year to celebrate and remember!

How was your 2015?

ABK