2009 has come and gone, and 2010 is about to start.

This year didn’t quite go as planned. I was off to a great start, but my training was thrown a bit off between breaking my foot in July, totaling my car in November, and getting a nasty case of bronchitis in December.

This year I ran 339 times for a total distance of 2002.3 miles in 14 days, 6 hours and 43 minutes. That is over 600 miles fewer than I ran in 2008, although total time on my feet was about the same, and was far short of the 3000 to 3500 miles I had planned on running this year. It was still over 100 miles further than I ran in 2007 and over 600 miles further than I ran in 2006.

Technically, I ran in 17 races this year. Realistically, I raced 8 times, once you take out the fat ass and Back Cove races. I only ran 1 marathon this year, but I also did 2 ultramarathons. Unfortunately, only 1 of them was in a state I had not yet run.

I began the year in the desert outside Vegas with the Running From an Angel 50 Miler, which is now officially the furthest I have ever run. It took me just over 7 hours and 47 minutes, and I placed 6^th out of 45 runners (and was the first runner in my age group.)

After recovering from the 50 Miler, I started to concentrate on a return to the Cox Sports Marathon, which I won in 2008. I ran my race plan perfectly, going through the first half of the race on a 2:35 pace which I knew was going to be needed to win again. Unfortunately, I don’t think I got the best training in leading up to the race, because I started to fade fast after 15 miles and while I still did well with a 2 hour and 46 minute 7^th place finish, it was still a bit of a disappointment.

Fortunately, I was able to redeem myself a few weeks later at the Pineland Farms Trail Challenge, where I ran a 36 minute 50k PR with my 3^rd place finish in 3 hours 51 minutes. My goal for this race was to run up front as long as I felt good and was having fun, and then to just slow down and continue having fun. After 18 miles I had to slow down, but it was a good time all around and I am looking forward to the 2010 version.

I didn’t really do any racing after I broke my foot in July, instead spending most of my time recovering (with 45 days completely off plus an additional few weeks of very low mileage or walking only.) My weight was about as steady as it has been for the past 4 years that I’ve been weighing myself daily, although you can certainly tell by the dips in my weight when I was taking time off:

This year, I wrote only 149 articles, which is less than half as many articles as I wrote in 2008. Traffic to the site was up by about 28%, however, and those numbers don’t include the articles I wrote only for my newsletter subscribers or the traffic to them. Most of that traffic came before I hurt myself, so in the coming year I am going to have to stay healthy and motivated to continue writing regularly on the site.

The two most popular articles were the same this year as last year, although 9 Things To Do The Week Before A Marathon swapped places for the number 1 spot over What is a Tempo Run?

I expect 2010 to be a vast improvement over 2009. I have some great plans for this January, and will have more details up about that tomorrow. It’s going to be very exciting.