Sadly I didn’t blog much this past year, so for the sake of getting things documented, here’s a quick summary of what I got up to in 2021.
2021 Races
Distance Series 20 Miler – 2:16:11. 3rd Old Guy. Training run for the Tidewater Striders BQ Marathon.
Tidewater Striders BQ Marathon – 2:59:26. 3rd place Old Guy again, but more importantly another sub-3:00 marathon to keep the annual streak alive.
Virginia 24-Hour Run/Walk for Cancer – 90 miles. Running well through 75 miles, but lost my mojo when the weather turned nasty. One of these days I’ll run a decent 24-hour race again!
Windsor Castle 10-Hour – 67.62 miles. 1st place. Tough day on the trails, but really pleased with the performance.
Taskinas Creek Marathon – 3:35:17. 1st place. Challenging hot/humid conditions and another tough race on the trails. Stoked with the win!
Strider Scholarship 5K – 21:19. 2nd place Masters. “Fun” cross country race in pretty slick conditions. Slowest 5K in years, but felt good to stretch the legs.
Strider Mile – 5:16:57. 3rd place Place Old Guy. Was hoping for a faster time, but I think I’m more suited to the longer, slower races. Fun to run a rare race on the track though.
Strider Distance Medley Relay (400m) – 1:09:37. Another fun track race and a nice win for our team. Felt surprisingly decent so soon after the Strider Mile.
Tidewater Striders Marathon – 2:53:08. 1st place Masters. No pressure for a sub-3:00, so just tried to enjoy the event and run as fast as possible. Really pleased with the performance and finish time – my fastest age-graded marathon of all time. Read the race recap here.
Dismal Swamp 100K – 8:37:08. 2nd place. I set off at quite an ambitious pace, but was able to hold on for a huge PR and a new Virginia age group state record. Read the race recap here.
Mel Williams Memorial Seashore 50K – 3:54:32. 4th overall/1st place Masters. My 13th consecutive Seashore 50K and one of the strongest fields I can remember. Ran a fairly conservative 1st half allowing me to gradually move through the field to finish a satisfying 4th place overall.
Stats
Running: 2780 miles
Walking: 428 miles
Cycling (Peloton): 770 miles
Injuries/niggles
August – lower back strain the day after the Strider Mile on a Jordan Bridge training run. Nothing major, but it did stop me running for about 10 days.
November – slight hamstring issue which prevented me from attempting any “faster” workouts. Decided not to race the local Turkey Trot 10K for fear of doing further damage. Turned out to be a wise decision.
Ambassador Programs
Tailwind Nutrition
Topo Athletic
Injinji
Squirrel’s Nut Butter
Summary
All in all a pretty satisfying year. I’m most happy with 2 more sub-3:00 marathons, the new 100K PR and being able to continue my streak of running every Seashore 50K, but the wins at the Windsor Castle 10-Hour event and Taskinas Creek Marathon were also big highlights. Now looking forward to 2022 and some new challenges.
Wow! Great job.