It’s pretty amazing what you can accomplish in one year. I’m so grateful and blessed that running is a part of my life. If you had asked me in a high school if I was going to like running and run marathons, I would have laughed. I HATED running long distance. Things do change as we get older and this was a change for the better. 2017 was filled with an awesome BQ (Boston Qualifier), running the most miles I’ve ever ran in a year, new races, and meeting new running friends. Looking back at my 2017 Fitness Goals, my first goal was to PR in the marathon, or any distance. So happy to say that I PR’d and BQ’d at the Vernonia Marathon last April. It was a suprise BQ since I wasn’t even thinking about going for a BQ until race day. I ran a 3:42:39 and my previous best was 3:59:14. It was an awesome PR!Unfortunately, it wasn’t in the cards for me to go to Boston since qualifiers who were 3 minutes, 23 seconds or faster than the qualifying time for their age group and gender were accepted into the 2018 Boston Marathon. I needed a time of 3:41:37. It was a bit disappointing but I was just happy to get the BQ. I did run another marathon in 2017, the California International Marathon (CIM) to try and get a better BQ but it didn’t go as planned. You win some and you lose some. I did get another PR last year in the half marathon which was awesome. I ran the Cottage Grove Half Marathon last March and ran a 1:45:24, my previous best was 1:48:26. I really have to thank Coach Dawn who’s helped me so much with my running. Having a run coach has definitely helped me.

My second goal was to continue my #PlankADay streak. Even though my plan was to do at least a minute a day, I forgot a couple of times. You’d think it’s only at least a minute, it should be easy to do right? Nope. But I started it up again and I’m on day 251. You can follow my posts on Twitter. 🙂

My third goal was to do more cross training. I don’t remember doing much while training for my marathons but I did get some workouts in with hubby.

My fourth goal was to eat healthier. I’d say that’s still a work in progress. 🙂

My fifth goal was to run more miles than 2016 and was aiming for 1400 miles. I ran 1341 miles in 2016 which was the most I’d ever ran in a year. I ended up with 1785 miles in 2017!! That’s amazing mileage for me.

I ran 10 total races and for three of those races I paced the 2:15 group. It’s always fun to pace others. Hope I get the chance to pace more races in 2018. Most of the other races I ran were just for fun. The only other race I raced was the Chocolatathon 10k  which I ran last February. I ended up getting first in my age group and 3rd overall female with a time of 49:04. Love smaller races! 🙂

One of the highlight races was running the Rock’n’Roll San Francisco Half Marathon. It was so much fun running with my sister and Lenora. Loved running on the Golden Gate Bridge! It was also pretty cool that we made the slideshow on competitor.com!Meeting new running friends is the best. It was great to meet people in real life from Social Media.

I’d say 2017 was a terrific year of running! I couldn’t of done it without the awesome support of my hubby and kiddos! So thankful for their support! Cheers to an amazing 2018!