2024 was the best year I ever had as a runner.
It was the most miles I ever ran in a year, with 3563 miles. That’s 500 more than my previous best, which was 2023, when I ran just over 3000 miles. And it was my best year in terms of races and results. CIM was likely my best age-graded result of all time. GTIS wasn’t too far behind. And I wasn’t far off the course record at the Spiral Drive race. The Vail Hill Climb was good but not great. But there were no bad races this year. And I’ve had my fair share of crappy races in the past.
I discovered in my 40s that I respond well to volume and threshold training. Admittedly, I’m not sure I had any understanding of what threshold training even was before my 40s, but now that I do, I’m finding that I can do more volume and quality than I ever thought possible. And I can be a better runner than I previously thought possible, as well. In my early 30s, I set a goal to run 16:59/35:59/1:19/2:49. I never ran any of those times in my 30s, but I blew all those times out of the water in my 40s. That was my bucket list of times in 2013. I ran them all in 2023 and 2024. And 2:39? I never saw that one coming.
2024 was also a very good year for me as a coach.
There were two notable coaching moments this year.
I coached a local runner named Kristine Clark to two world championship golds at the World Masters Athletics Championships. Kris is 61, and she proved herself to be the best distance runner in her age group worldwide this year. Among Kris’s accomplishments: Fastest age-graded time at the Carlsbad 5000 (19:26 – converts to just over 15-flat age graded); Fastest women’s over-60 time in Bolder Boulder history by almost two minutes (42:10); World Championship Record in the 5000 at the WMAC in Gothenburg, Sweden (19:28 in muggy conditions); World XC Champ in the 8k.
Kris was a superstar before I started coaching her. But my main contribution to her training, I think, was keeping her healthy enough to show off how strong of a runner she is. She had a great six months of training with no injuries from January through July. That’s all she needed to set the gold standard in her age group.
The other big highlight was coaching (as an assistant) the Salida boys XC team to a 3A state championship. I can’t take too much credit for this one, since I was only a part-time assistant, but it was certainly fun being along for the ride there as well. That team came really close in 2021 (best ever team score for 2nd place), but this year they got it done. Salida is small for its class, and always competes against private schools that draw from a wider geographic area (teams 2-5 this year 3A all had the word “Academy” in their name). It was good to see those kids get the reward they deserved.
What’s new for 2025? Running-wise, not much. More of the same. In terms of races, I plan to race the Vail Hill Climb and the NYC marathon. Other than that, maybe Imogene Pass and the Bolder Boulder. I will likely be extremely busy with work the first four months of the year, so that could impact my training and coaching. I'd like to run a fast low-altitude 10k and half marathon at some stage, but haven't had time to plan anything yet.
I also hope to write more in 2025. I enjoy doing it, here and elsewhere. We’ll see if I can bang out a few more words with more consistency.
Feels weird to report this much positivity in a blog here. I feel like the first 12 years of this blog were a string of excuses for why I wasn’t as good of a runner as I wanted to be. Now it’s all coming up roses. Gotta enjoy it while it lasts, because you know it won’t last forever.
