Change of Pace

Rough year, really, but I guess doing a quick mental slog through it sets the stage for an improved 2008.

* I spent most of January sick, sick, sick and had to resort to antibiotics to finally get my health back, so hopefully this current cold won't be a repeat of that experience.
* In February, I got rejected from a really promising job prospect and sunk into a rather blue spell for a while since I was really burned out on the current job. My running team had a bit of a blow up over whether it was acceptable for members to get outside coaching and following that, most of the fastest women quit. I also took a brutal tumble down the subway steps that left me pretty banged up.
*Things perked up a bit in March as the weather started to warm up and I started boosting my mileage, but I still wasn't ready to start racing again and my unhappiness at work was still coloring every other part of my life.
* Maybe because I needed a mental escape from career worries, I really started a significant push in my training in April and was up to 70 miles a week by the end of the month. During the last week, I headed down to Cuba with my mother to visit my brother when that all came to a crashing halt. I stumbled over a tree root while scampering around with my brother's puppy and did more damage than I realized at the time.
* I started off May thinking it wasn't that serious, but increasingly problematic back pains finally sidelined me from the running completely. By the end of the month I was hopeful that acupuncture and rest might do the trick.
* In June, I finally abandoned my pipe dream of running a 2:47 marathon in time for trials qualification. I was a little sad about it, but it was somewhat freeing too to let that go. Throughout this month and even more so in July, my work and personal life began to really drag me down into a dark place, so it was kind of nice to just have the running as an emotional support, rather than yet another responsibility.
* August started off a little like the morning after some terrible devastation. I was almost startled to have made it through that far and the fact that I had allowed me to start picking up the pieces and figuring out where to go from there. I started running regularly again and wonder of wonders...finally got a new job. Life started looking up.
* I moved the blog over here to Alison's lovely little runner community in September and while it may have been mostly a symbolic move, it marked a fresh start. I ran a respectable cross country race and started to feel good about my team again as I got to know a few of the new, enthusiastic young women that had joined.
* I committed to starting a new training cycle in October with an eye towards Boston in the spring. It was nice to finally feel motivated to train towards a goal again. Work was making me happy and I was settling into the routine of my now long-distance relationship.
* November started off with such excitement over the men's Olympic trials in the park, but it quickly turned to grief when I was faced with Ryan Shay's tragic death in a very intimate, personal way. I struggled for weeks to escape the feeling that I should have been able to help save him and the images of that day are still very fresh in my memory. My own running was a comfort through that and I felt myself getting stronger. Another blow up with my club team caused all of the new women to quit, so emotionally, I really started to distance myself from caring anymore.
* I surprised myself at the beginning of December by nearly breaking 40 minutes in a 10K, so the feeling of getting stronger hadn't been an illusion after all. Getting sick there at the end kind of sucks, but with any luck that will be over with soon and I can get on with the business of making 2008 a much, much better year than 2007 was.