This year started out with lots of fun and visitors.  Between family time and work, I am just now getting a chance to sit down and do my mileage for the year.  2016 was an adventure filled and joyous one for our entire family.  It was my first full year as a mom spent learning to balance that with Sarah “The Runner.”  Talk about a great lesson in keeping everything going.    Here is a quick recap of my year.

January 198 miles:

My year began with the honor of becoming a part of the Simple Hydration Run Team.  I have been using this bottle for a fear years now, thanks to founder Brian Hock.  I applied to join the team and am so happy that I was chosen.  I love this bottle and adore the group of runners within this team.  I have learned a lot from all of them this past year.

February 207 miles:

My brother got married in Aruba and we enjoyed some time playing on the beach and splashing in the pool with our 6 month old.  Rock and I both started our marathon training for the Run For The Red Poconos Marathon.  I do remember a particularly difficult 16 miler that was finished entirely on grit.

March 235 miles:

We were lucky enough to escape the cold yet again and join my parents for a week in Florida.  Our family has visited the same place for over 20 years and each year is just as fun as the last.  It is so fun to show our daughter the places I loved as a little girl.  Rock and I also got in a very hot 18 miler together along the beach.

April 247 miles:

We packed up and headed to NYC for the spring for work.  It was a nice way to switch up the training.  Typically I would do my long runs weaving all over the city, but with a baby at home with a sitter, I ended up spending most of my runs doing loops of hilly Central Park.   This ended up being a very wise decision because the Poconos Marathon wasn’t the entirely downhill race that it is often touted to be.

May 155 miles:

The Poconos Marathon was pretty epic for me.  Just about 9 months after Mary was born, I toed the line for my return to the marathon.  I trained both wisely and hard, and felt great.  Not only did I qualify for Boston but I also had over an 8 minute marathon PR!

June 157 miles:

Grandma’s Marathon was meant to be my backup race to qualify for Boston.  Good thing I got that covered the month before, because the weather conditions and an overtrained body had me breaking down before I reached the halfway point.  It was a very humbling experience.

July 156 miles:

I love summer and we had a great one this year.  We traveled to Wisconsin for hockey camp and also ran the Cherry Festival 15k where I placed in my age group.  That was a big one for me as I have done pretty well in years past but never managed to get that age group finish.

August 146 miles:

My mileage plummeted a bit this summer as I crammed before getting my ACE Health Coach Certification and then moved from Chicago to Michigan.  We spent a better part of that month making multiple trips to move furniture and then painting every room in the house.

September 174 miles:

Back to the grindstone at just the perfect time as I received confirmation that I was going to be running the 2017 Boston Marathon!

October 163 miles:

Fall running is the absolute best.  I managed to get in a few long runs during the week again.  I also started a new job as a Health Coach and Personal Trainer at the local YMCA!

November 176 miles:

We had great weather this fall and it helped  create a pretty solid base for my running.  At our annual Turkey Trot I had a 10k PR and 3rd place age group finish.  Then I ate way too much food!

December 168 miles:

I may not love winter running but I love everything about the holidays.  We had a wonderful month of family time and snuggles and I started my Boston Marathon training.

Total miles: 2182

It was a very blessed year.  Thank you for following along, commenting, and sharing your stories.  A very special thank you to Simple Hydration and Legend Compression for bringing me onto their teams!

What was your best memory of 2016?