2024 Year-End Review

This is my end of year review for the goals I set at the beginning of the year.  Technically, the year isn’t over yet, but I’m finishing the year with two rest days, so the year is effectively over for me.

I reached all of my goals, and I exceeded several of them.  In retrospect, some of my goals may have been too soft.

Run 3,000 Miles in 2024

This goal, more than any other, defined my year.

When I set this goal, I thought it was ambitious.  My previous best was 2,889.7 miles.  I stayed healthy all year and gradually increased my mileage.  By the end of October, I had already run more than 3,000 miles.  After that, I set a stretch goal of 3,660 miles, which is an average of 10 miles per day.

I’ll finish the year with 3,668.1 miles.  That’s an average of 10.02 miles per day.  I exceeded my previous best by almost 800 miles.

Besides setting a new personal record for mileage in a year, I also set PRs for January, February, March, April, May, June, July, and October.

I was more consistent than I’ve ever been before.  There wasn’t a single week that I didn’t run at least 50 miles, even when my travel schedule made it difficult.

It's worth nothing that I’m only counting running, not walking.  In 2017 and 2018, when I was mostly race-walking, I may have put in more total mileage, but it was mostly walking.

Run at Least 100 Miles in the FANS 24-Hour Run

I ran 100 miles at FANS, and I won the state championship for men over 60.  Those were my minimum goals.  I was hoping for more, but my race ended suddenly when I went too long without changing clothes and had circulation issues in my legs as it cooled off during the night.

Run My 100th Minnesota Marathon

I ran nine marathons or ultras in Minnesota this year.  That brought my lifetime total to 104, exceeding my goal by four.

Run Marathons in 50 Countries

I ran marathons in five new countries this year, bringing my lifetime total to 51.  My 50th country was Andorra.  Since then, I’ve also run a marathon in Barbados.

Run Outdoors Whenever Possible

I made it through the whole year without doing any running on a treadmill or indoor track.  It helped that the 2023-24 winter was the mildest winter I can remember.  I didn’t have to deal with too much snow or ice, and we only had one week of subzero temperatures.

December was more difficult.  We had temperatures more typical for winter, and we also had snow and ice in the streets.  Those conditions made running outdoors more challenging, but not impossible.

Qualify for the National Senior Games

My minimum goal was to qualify for the road race and race-walk events at next year’s National Senior Games.  That was a pretty soft goal.  To qualify, all I needed to do was finish one road race event and place in the top four in my age group in one race-walk event.

My stretch goal was to place in the top three in my age group each of my events.  I was second in my age group in the 5K run, first in my age group in the 10K run, and first overall in both of my race-walk events.

I was happy with my results in the running events, but I was disappointed with my times in the walking events.  I won them, but I wasn’t as fast as I was in last year’s National Senior Games.  If I want to place in my age group in next year’s National Senior Games, I’m going to need to train harder.

Stay on Schedule to Finish a 5th Circuit of 50 States in 2025

My minimum goal was to position myself to finish next May.  Instead, I finished in November at the Route 66 Marathon.  That was ideal, since that race was a reunion of the 50 States Marathon Club.

The Missing Goal

I met or exceeded all of my goals, but I really should’ve had an additional goal.  The whole point of doing my winter running outdoors instead of on the treadmill was to break myself of the habit of tripping during races.

I thought running outdoors during the winter would force me to pick up my feet more.  Apparently, that didn’t work.  I still tripped and had hard falls in three races.  One was a trail race, but the other two were road races.

The goal I should’ve set was to get through the year with no falls.  I failed miserably at that.