I wasn’t actually going to do a recap post this year, but I haven’t posted in a while and I think I’ve done one every year this blog has been going so why stop now?
Most of this year was spent traveling and running which, if you ask me, is the perfect way to spend your time.
I had planned to run eight marathons in 2018. Unfortunately, I only ended up running five. While I’m disappointed I didn’t hit my goal, I still ran five damn marathons in a single year and that’s pretty rad. I’m really proud of that.
I started off as I have most recent years with Marathon Weekend in Disney World. I ran my third Dopey Challenge and sixth Goofy Challenge. Not only that, but I ran a course PR for the marathon and nearly BQed.
After that, I got to run the Boston Marathon! This is probably the highlight of my year, to be honest. It’s something I’d been working on making a reality for years and the experience was as amazing as I could have imagined. Despite the horrendous weather, I wouldn’t have changed a thing.
Well, one thing I might have changed was the media circus around the whole thing. I could have done without the media deciding that trans people running the Boston Marathon was now a thing. Though, I did get to be a guest on a couple podcasts in the process and that’s always a lot of fun.
Two weeks later, I hopped on a plane to spend a week in California—San Fransisco and Monterey. Best of all, this trip ended with running the second half of Boston 2 Big Sur, The Big Sur Marathon. By far, this was the most challenging race course I’ve ever run, but it was gorgeous!
Less than a month and a half after that, I was off to Denver for the first time. I’d never been, but I was able to make a work trip out of it to save money. Denver offered me some amazing food, fun times with friends, and great hiking. It also gave me my fourth marathon of 2018, the Revel Rockies Marathon. The thing that makes this race interesting is that you start at 10,000+ feet and end at 5,000ish. It’s a huge downhill course that was brutal on my legs.
Unfortunately, after this race, my running fell apart for months. I spent most of the summer struggling to be able to run at all. My body just felt like it was revolting on me every time I tried to run. I had zero energy. This ended up hampering most of my New York City Marathon training.
While my NYC Marathon didn’t go exactly as I had hoped it would, I still had a ton of fun and actually enjoyed the race much more than I thought I would. It was such a great day!
A few weeks later, I was off to Denver again. This time, it was just a trip for fun, no work to be done. I knew my snowboarding season was going to be basically non-existent in 2019 so I took advantage of a cheap flight and some of the best early season snow conditions in years. I’ve only ever ridden out west once before so there was still so much excitement to be had just by being out there. I got to spend a day at Keystone and two days at Breckenridge. The night I spent in Breckenridge was in a fancy ski-in/out resort where I got the VIP treatment (mostly just because it was pretty empty, I think?). I also got to get some friend time in while I was out there. All in all, it was a fantastic trip.
Unfortunately, after NYC Marathon, I really struggled to recover and get back to running mileage again. So, it turned out that pretty much the entire second half of the year was a big running bust for me. I ran many fewer miles and only ran one marathon when I had planned to run four.
Still, despite the second half of the year being a big bust for me, I ran five marathons, seven half marathons, and 1,346 miles this year. That’s my second highest mileage ever, I think. I also had a total elevation gain of 17,582ft. I haven’t verified this, but it absolutely has to be my best ever.
Aside from those marathons and trips, I also got to see Atlanta for the first time and run the Peachtree Road Race. It was brutally humid and hot, but it was nice to spend time with friends. And, I got to see Seattle and Vancouver for the first time, as well. Both also awesome cities that were a lot of fun to visit!
I’m trying to think back through the year for other highlights, but it really was just running and traveling this year. And that’s not a bad thing at all! That’s pretty much what I had planned for the year and it was a lot of fun.
Heading into 2019, I already have four marathons on the calendar. All for of them are World Marathon Majors, Tokyo, Boston, Berlin, and NYC. That’s pretty damn rad, if you ask me. I’m also planning on not adding any other marathons and sticking with those four. Doing five this year seemed to really beat me up more than I had hoped. But those four races also mean I’ll get to do a bit more traveling in 2019, as well.