Obligatory End Of Decade Post (One Week Late)

This is how I started the decade:

March 2000, on vacation in California, with my uncle's late beloved cat A.C. I was in my final semester of graduate school and I was 26 years old.

This is how I ended it:

At the Eve on the Ave 5K in Jackson, Michigan, December 31, 2009.

The "aughts" were the years I finally left the safe, nurturing, insular world of academia and entered the cold, cruel world of Real Life. The decade in a nutshell:

• 2000: got my master's degree in geology from the University of Michigan; took my last cross-country drive from Michigan to California
• 2001: started my first post-higher education job; met and moved in with my eventual husband
• 2002: went to Ireland for a week; bought my house; quit my job
• 2003: found my current job; started taking voice lessons
• 2004: got married in Hawaii
• 2005: performed with Michigan Opera Theater in Puccini's La Boheme
• 2006: went to Hawaii again; joined Weight Watchers
• 2007: had the surgery which changed my life for the better; started running in earnest; ran my first half marathon
• 2008: performed with Arbor Opera Theater in Mozart's Don Giovanni; ran my first marathon
• 2009: major domestic reorganization (aka divorce); qualified for Boston Marathon

A year ago I laid out my goals for 2009:

• Qualify for the 2010 Boston Marathon at the Cleveland Marathon in May (success!)
  
• Run a sub-1:50 half marathon (success! not once but twice!)
  
• Run a sub-50:00 10K (success! again, not once but twice!)
  
• Set another new 5K PR (success!)
  
• OR break 22:00 in a 5K (fail!)
  
• Run 1500 miles for the year (fail!)
  
• Run at least one race each month (fail!)

I posted a 4/7 success rate (57.1%) which is worse than 2008's goal success rate (87.5%) but I achieved my biggest goal of the year, which was to BQ in Cleveland. I ran 1237 miles, which is 93 miles less than I ran in 2008. However, I decreased my average pace by 13 seconds to 8:58/mile. I also spent 183 hours and 9 minutes on the road and burned 136,864 calories.

My "one race a month" goal was toast in January when I came down with the flu the final weekend of the month, a weekend which I had planned to run a race. However, I did my best to make up for it the rest of the year. I missed September because I completely blanked and let the month slip past, although if I really wanted to I could categorize my run across the Mackinac Bridge on Labor Day as my race for the month because it was an organized group event even if it was not technically a "race."

Notable moments and races of 2009:

• January: went to Washington to attend presidential inauguration, only to be felled by the stomach flu
  
• February: ran the Super 5K; sidelined for three weeks due to IT band syndrome
• March: ran the Shamrocks and Shenanigans 5K
  
• April: ran the Martian Half Marathon and set a new PR; ran Fit 5K and set a new PR; saw Andrew Bird in concert
• May: Qualified for the Boston Marathon; ran the Dexter-Ann Arbor 10K and set a new PR; domestic reorganization complete; saw Animal Collective in concert (easily my favorite concert of the past several years)
  
• June: ran my first trail race, the Flirt with Dirt 5K; went to Vermont and participated in the Green Mountain Relay
  
• July: ran my first cross-country race in 18 years, the Lyn Yarows Memorial 5K; also ran the excellently-named Homer Hogstravaganza Road Hog 5K (and injured myself in the process); saw Neko Case in concert
• August: went to California for the vacation of a lifetime; ran the Race Thru the Redwoods 10K; ran the Run for the Rolls 1-Mile and set a new PR; saw Great Lake Swimmers in concert
• September: participated in the Labor Day Mackinac Bridge Run as a Fitness Ambassador; saw Sufjan Stevens and Grizzly Bear in concert
• October: ran the Wild Life Half Marathon and set a new PR; saw Andrew Bird in concert (again)
• November: ran the New York City Marathon; saw Neko Case in concert (again)
• December: ran the Run Like The Dickens 5K and the Eve on the Ave 5K

I don't really know what I would like to accomplish in 2010. The past year was one of great personal strife and triumph, and I do not know how I could better it. Yes, I will run the Boston Marathon in April. That race is my only goal at the moment. I would like to do well there. Ideally I would love to re-qualify, but I recognize that may be difficult. I have some modest goals in mind for 2010:

• run 1500 miles
• run a race every month!
  
• reach my Weight Watchers goal weight and become a Lifetime member

And you know what? That's all. That's all I would like to accomplish. I realize that breaking 22:00 in a 5K or 45:00 in a 10K may not be within my reach anymore. I have to accept that I'm getting older and slower.

But that doesn't mean I'm not going to try.