It's always fun to go back through my races at the end of the year, to see if the goals I set for myself at the beginning of the year were met or exceeded, and to just look at what went well (and what went badly) to help determine what I would like to accomplish this year. My goals were fairly straight forward, and they were to peak for the spring and fall seasons and run close to my PRs, and to win more races than I did the year before. This second goal sounds odd, but when I recorded 95 wins in 2000, I thought that if things came together, 100 wins was in the realm of possibility. All this hinged on the fact that I needed to stay healthy and motivated through 2001 (and if I found the right races - the ones that all the people who could beat me on any given day, and there are many, didn't show up to that race!).
So here are the main highlights:
Jan-Mar: Definitely exceeded expectations with three PRs (Indoor 1600 meters and 20km in January, and 12km in March). That showed that the heavy winter training was paying off, and that my goals for peaking for the spring were achievable. Ran my second fastest 10k in February, so I was ready for the weather to get warmer to really see what I could do.
Apr: Caught a bad cold at the end of March, and that knocked me back for a couple of weeks (I could really tell in my workouts, because they felt sluggish, like I was just going through the motions). However, April means Cherry Blossom, and when the day came, I was ready for my favorite race. I base my whole Spring training program around this race, and if I peak well for this one, then all my races up to two weeks before and two weeks after, are going to be strong. CB was my best performance of the year, and I just wonder what could have been, had I not gotten sick a few weeks before. An interesting side note, was that if I had been one year older, I would have finished as 2nd masters runner overall; instead, I had to eat the Kenyan's
dust in the open category!
Jul: Usually I train for speed, not endurance in the summer (who can put in the long runs in that heat?). And on a clear, warm night, I ran my fastest 1500 meters in 5 years. That gave me hope that I still had some speed in these legs, so one of my goals this year will be to focus on some of the shorter distances!
Nov: My fall training had centered around the Army 10 miler and Nasdaq 10k, but with those cancellations being announced at the last minute, I wasn't going to waste some strong training the past few months. So I adjusted my training to peak at United We Stand 10k at West Potomac Park and the Turkey Trot 5 miler in Alexandria, and the result was a couple of races that were within a few ticks of my PRs! I also have an Alan Webb story. I raced against him twice this year, and both times (Utica Boilermaker 15k - he was on a training run; and Run for Kids Mile - which he ran for charity, so he was just jogging), I was able to beat him. So I can say my record against him after he set the High School Mile record is a nifty 2-0! Don't tell him that, or the next time he runs against me, he will clean my clock.
Dec: This was a huge month for me, as one of my main goals was to stay
healthy and motivated. This was especially important as I turned the corner from an Open runner to "Master's" runner. Was I going to immediately slow down and shuffle through races, or did I still have a few fast twitch muscles working for me? The answer was apparent as I set another PR at an Indoor track meet, in the 1600 meters (and if we had run 9 more meters, it would have surpassed my indoor mile PR as well).
The other goal was to see how many races I could win in a year. I'll preface that statement with the fact that many things have to fall in place to achieve the goal that I wanted to achieve. First, with the plethora of races that can be found on any given weekend in the Washington area, finding the one that isn't stacked with all the speedsters is not really that difficult. Next, staying at or near top form is a little tougher, but not if you listen to your body when aches and pains flare up. An easy day here or there can make a world of difference in whether you are able to keep racing, or are down for the count with an overuse injury. And a little luck and experience are also key, whether it's knowing where the big hill is on the course and saving something for it, to knowing the perfect moment to start your kick to pull it off at the end.
So, with all that, I won 127 races this year, which surpassed my goal of 100!
It took 229 races to do it, but I'm not going for an undefeated season, like some Olympians. I'm having too much fun "just showing up" and
participating! On to 2002....
Ted
Lifetime totals: 2376 races; 632 wins, 317 seconds, and 230 thirds
(overall top 3 finishes - 1179).
2001 Bests (as compared to my top 10 lifetime bests at each distance):
1500m - 6th fastest lifetime (No. County)
2 mi - 3rd fastest (Western Maryland College); 8th (Thomas Johnson)
4 mi - 3rd (Hugh Jascourt - 5 seconds off PR); 8th (Bastille)
8k/5mi - 2nd (Turkey Trot - 2 seconds off PR)
10k - 2nd (GW Birthday); 3rd (United We Stand); 8th (Sallie Mae)
15k - 6th (Boilermaker); 8th (GW Parkway)
10mi - 3rd (Cherry Blossom)
12k - PR (Burke Lake)
20k - PR (JFK)
Half Mar. - 3rd (Belle Haven)