2020 Year in Review

05APR21 – I started this post in December and gave myself a deadline of January to finish it, but I am a procrastinator and finishing it now four months late.

I didn’t get to race as much in 2020 just like everyone else due to COVID, but that didn’t stop me from being active. According to Strava I spent 757 hours over 330 days either running, mountain biking, or walking. My therapist said, “You poor thing, you really do not want to be at home.” Yes, she was absolutely right. Aside from my marriage falling apart and being in a global pandemic, everything else was pretty damn good. I had my health, my job, lots of love, and my freedom, despite all the ever-changing restrictions. Below are my 2020 training highlights.

25JAN20 – I celebrated my 2nd Ultra Anniversary with Mangum Track Club at the NC FATASS 50K. I finished in 6:19:40. With Georgia Death Race as my A race of the year, I didn’t know that this would end up being my last race in the age 20-29 group and was the only female in that group to show up.

22FEB20 – I completed the Fayetteville Running Club Smith Lake Winter Trail Challenge

29FEB20 – Stone Mountain State Park with Daisy; 19.24 miles + 4764′ vert – first long run with snow

07MAR20 – Shenandoah National Park Loop 26.7 miles, 8553 ft elevation gain

15MAR20 – When Fort Bragg announced that travel restrictions would go into effect due to COVID starting Monday 17MAR20, I quickly changed my plans from running at Uwharrie and drove 4 hours out to summit Mt. Mitchell with Daisy (18 miles + 4533′ vert) just in case GDR was still a go. On Monday, I find out my leave is canceled and GDR is postponed to November. Ultimately I decided not to run GDR, using my registration fee to support RunBumTours but not the actions of the race director. Luckily for me, that was the only loss I had to deal with as far as race registration goes. My coach and I agreed to switch our training focus to speed and my new A goal was to finish sub-24 hours at Yeti in September.

28-29MAR20 – pacing Brandy in the middle of the night and watching her cross the finish line for the virtual Blackbeard’s Revenge 100, her first 100-mile race! Go FRC!!

12APR20 – Raya’s First Time/Distance PR at Uwharrie; 20 miles + 3445′ vert

18-19APR20 – Yeti Ultra 24 Hour Challenge: Run 5 miles every 4 hours for 24 hours. I started lap 1 on Saturday at 0700 on the trails at Smith Lake and alternated with road runs from my house (and switched pups!). I completed the final lap on Fort Bragg where I felt most safe to start at 0300.

09MAY20 – MURCA V50K completed at Uwharrie with Daisy; 31.86 miles + 4616′ vert

12MAY20: Fastest 5K: 22:56

26MAY20: Fastest Mile: 6:33 and making it Year 2 on the RADrabbit Squad

30MAY20 – I added the Leadville Silver King & Queen Race Series to my bucket list. The challenge is to run 50 miles one day and then mountain bike 50 miles the next. I took this idea to celebrate my *DIRTY 30* birthday by running 30 miles on the All-American Trail (15 with Daisy and 15 with Raya). On Sunday I rode 30 miles on the Fonta Flora Trail.

30JUN20: Completed the FRC Cupcake Challenge: Run/Walk 244 miles between 01MAY20-30JUN20 with another FRC Member. Justin and I completed 1135.1 miles! Thank you Justin for submitting our weekly miles and coming up with our team name!

09JUL20 – 10 mile PR: 1:25:28

12JUL20 – Compression Falls Hike in Cherokee National Forest, Tennessee and Grandfather Mountain, North Carolina

26JUL20 – I said “See you later” to my friends in North Carolina and moved to Virginia. I explored new running routes in the DMV and met a few runners.

07AUG20 – Back in May, I joined along with 19,000+ runners around the world to complete the GVRAT1000K. Apparently, it would take me 93 days to run across the state of Tennessee. It was definitely easier for me to run the miles than to keep track of it! I entered both Daisy and Raya in the Dog Race Across Tennessee (DRAT) but it was way too much work to log all 3 of our miles.

30AUG20 – met my RADrabbit teammate Kennedy and put in some miles for RADrelays

19SEP20 – The day my husband and I separated. I had one final run with Daisy before I spent the day packing and moving out. We did a half-marathon starting from Clarendon to the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Mural/SCOTUS in D.C. and back. I miss you Daisy.

25-26SEP20 – Completed my goal of finishing sub-24 hours at a wet and rainy Yeti 100-Mile Endurance Run 23:21:59

19NOV20 – I joined the US Association of Blind Athletes and became a guide for Visually Impaired (VI) Runners. I connected with Angie and Phil through United in Stride. I will be guiding Angie at her next half-marathon!

05-06DEC20: First full experience of the crewing side and crossing the finish line with Cecy at the Daytona 100, her first 100-mile race!

25DEC20 – Escaped the slushy east coast to enjoy warmth and sunshine in SoCal with my family. Finished off the year riding mountain bike trails with my motorcycle friends and beach runs with both of my besties!

Total 2020 miles: 2723 surpassed my goal of 2020 miles. As always, thank you to all those who shared miles with me – they either comforted me or inspired me! I especially miss Fayetteville Running Club and have not found anything like it in NoVA. A huge shout out to Coach Ian Sharman – he is truly one of the best coaches you can ask for. Even though we stopped working together after Yeti, I continued training like a Sharman Ultra Athlete. I finished another sub-24 hr last week at the 2021 Umstead 100-Mile Endurance Run and currently tapering for another 100-miler this upcoming weekend (although I don’t think Ian would have approved of this idea). Maybe there will be a race report for either/both next week or another four months from now. Wish me luck!