My Year of Running 2017

It's that time of year! When we start looking back at all the things we accomplished and start making plans for the year to come. I love this time of year.

Let's reflect back on my running this past year. I'm linking up with Courtney at Eat Pray Run DC for this fun end-of-the-year link-up.

Best race experience

This is an easy one, and not just because I only ran 3 races this year (two of which were virtual). Run Laughlin half marathon was my best race in a long time. Despite some issues the day before and morning of, everything just clicked when the race started. I trained well for the race and came up with a good race day strategy that helped carry me through to a bigger PR than I hoped for. Best of all, I had a blast out there! You can read the full recap here.

Best run

Honestly, there were quite a few runs this year that I thought, THIS! This is my favorite of the year. But, the one that really stands out in my mind is a trail run from back in January. 

It was windy. It was rainy. But I think today's run will be a contender for best run of 2017. It was amazingly beautiful out at #McculloughHills. The rain brought out all the desert colors, and it was like running on a whole new trail.

A post shared by Clarinda (@enjoyingthecourse) on Jan 22, 2017 at 1:25pm PST

It was cold and rainy and windy, but man oh man was it incredibly beautiful.

Best new piece of running gear

Hands down my Garmin 630. We got a great deal on it during Amazon's Prime Day in July and it arrived just in time for my 40th birthday. This watch has been a real game changer for me! Not only for tracking my runs, but also for keeping me just a bit more active throughout the day. I rarely take it off because I love how it lets me know when I've been sitting too long. It's been helpful for incorporating different workouts into my training and really helped me to run my best race during Run Laughlin with various alerts.

Best running advice you've received this year

I'm not sure if it's advice per se, but during Blogfest in July, I attended a seminar on Barefoot Running. Sure, I switched to Altras a few years ago and I've read Born to Run (read my review on GoodReads), but this seminar really got me excited about barefoot/forefoot running. Spoiler alert: My 2018 running goal is to transition to barefoot/forefoot running.

Most inspirational runner

I restarted this blog back in Nov 2016 after a 16-month hiatus. In doing so, I connected with a great group of blogging runners. It's been a fun year connecting and getting to know them. Shout-outs to Wendy from Taking the Long Way Home and Marcia from Marcia's Healthy Slice. Wendy was diagnosed with RA just over a year ago, and her journey over the past year has been very inspiring. Marcia has the best running pics on Instagram.

Favorite picture from a run or race this year

This.

I took a quick second crossing from AZ back into NV during Run Laughlin and was rewarded with this sweet pic. I think it turned out so well and shows just how happy I was to be meeting my goals and crushing this race.

Race experience you would repeat in a heartbeat

I sound like a broken record... but Run Laughlin! The weather was perfect. The scenery was gorgeous. The course was a nice mix of flats and hills. Everything just clicked. If I could bottle up that race experience and use it for every race I ran, it would be marvelous.

If you could sum up your year in a couple of words what would they be?

All over the place.

At the end of January, I decided to run an ultra.

By the end of February, I scrapped that idea because of some knee pain that I didn't want to get worse.

Mar-May averaged less than 30 miles each month.

June was the summer RW Run Streak, so I doubled my mileage with a 60+ month.

Pretty light mileage July-Aug.

The end of Sept brought on half marathon training.

The end of Nov started the winter RW Run Streak.

No major injuries (thank goodness), but just a lot of ups and downs with my running mojo.

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Past year's Year of Running posts: 2011, 2013, 2014. 2016