Happy New Year!

Hello 2012.

Or, the year of the MARATHON!

I know it has been way too long since I last posted, but the month of December was very busy for me and I didn't run a lot due to my knee. I did manage to get a nice 16km run in on Christmas Eve morning and ended up topping out the month at 96km run (um, wow! I didn't realise I had run that much!) and 10h16m48s. I didn't run any races in December but finished the month (and year) with the annual resolution run on New Years Eve out of my local running room. I ran with my friend J who was running her first official anything and took my time and stayed with her through the end. She was amazing and never stopped!

In terms of 2011 as a whole, it was an AMAZING year of running for me! I completed my first and second half marathon and managed to get some very nice PBs in the shorter distances of 5 and 10k. In total, I ran 1427km without ever setting a goal in that department (something I'll be sure to do in 2012). I managed to keep my love of running and joining the community at the local Running Room and on DailyMile has really helped with that. I'm really looking forward to the year ahead.

Speaking of which, Marathon training started today! I hit the treadmill at the gym while my kids enjoyed the child care services (well, my 5 year old enjoyed himself, my 16 month old cried pretty much the entire time). I forgot my earbuds so decided to keep the run interesting by throwing in two 10 minute bursts of tempo at 5:17 pace per km. I felt good and it was a great run.

Tomorrow I'm heading to the free run at the RR and we'll run 10k (let's hope this -21c weather goes away) and on Thursday, the clinic officially begins when we have our first clinic night.

The marathon isn't my only goal for 2012, but it is my first half goal, so I'll talk about what I want to do after May 6th sometime later.

In the meantime, get ready to hear more from me as training ramps up again and I discover the joys of long-long runs!