My whole running world changed in 2020. I ran my last in person race right before the start of the COVID-10 pandemic. I didn’t run an in-person race again until Crim 2021. In between all of that, I did a lot of virtual races and my own personal challenges, and I also faced a lot of personal struggles. 2022 felt like the “comeback” year for me.
The other night, I logged into Garmin to check out the monthly challenges for January. Those Garmin challenges were part of what got me through the lack of a running community in 2020, and I have tried to keep up with many of them ever since. I was surprised to see that I had earned the 2022 Running – Stage 4 badge by completing 300km (186.5 miles) from October 1 to December 31. That had me curious about whether I had achieved the yearly goal of 1200km (745.65 miles) for 2022 (spoiler alert: I sure didn’t), and then led me down the rabbit hole of looking back at my yearly running mileage since 2016 when I started using Garmin.
Yearly Running Mileage from 2016-2022
- 2016: 394 miles – I am pretty sure I didn’t get a Garmin account until halfway through 2016, and this was when I trained for my first marathon
- 2017: 708.6 miles – Training for marathon #2!
- 2018: 929 miles – I ran 2 marathons in 2018 (never again…)
- 2019: 1067.2 miles – my best year of running, currently the year with all of my personal bests for races of all distances 5k-marathon
- 2020: 902.8 miles – the monthly challenges that Garmin started really helped me to keep my mileage up
- 2021: 746.2 miles – I think the only reason why 2021 was any better than 2022 was because I trained for a marathon
- 2022: 538.1 miles – I’m not surprised to see the mileage drop this much, and I hope to go up from here. This explains A LOT about where I’m at with my pace, my body, etc.
I was honestly surprised to see how low my yearly mileage was this year, but then again, it makes a lot of sense. My running pace has decreased pretty dramatically, and if you want to run faster, running more definitely helps. I also had a couple of really low months during 2022 due to injury, and maybe also due to weather? I’m not really sure why my mileage was so low in February.
Here is my Monthly Mileage Breakdown for 2022:
- January 2022: 35.4 miles
- February 2022: 16.6 miles – I’m not really sure why I didn’t run much this month, other than it was winter in Michigan?
- March 2022: 35.5 miles
- April 2022: 50.2 miles
- May 2022: 48.7 miles
- June 2022: 15 miles – this was the month that I fell walking out of work in the parking lot and really messed up my knee
- August 2022: 51.8 miles
- July 2022: 42 miles
- September 2022: 54.4 miles
- October 2022: 56.5 miles
- November 2022: 54.2 miles
- December 2022: 77.9 miles
I didn’t run many in-person races in 2021 or 2022, but the few that I did were a lot of fun. Especially the ones where I got to dress up in costumes.
My Races in 2022:
- Winterlaufe 8k – February 2022 (my 100th race!)
- Corktown 5k – March 2022 (my first time running this race, hopefully if I ever do it again it won’t be snowing and disgusting outside)
- I Ran the D 5k – May 2022 (a birthday celebration of my friend Staci, the person I ran my very first marathon with!)
- Kick Your Assparagus 5k – June 2022 (we had so much fun dressing up as bees! The course and the trip were really pretty, but I could have done without the 100% incline for the first half of the race!)
- Lake Lansing Relay – August 2022 (I took a leap and ran with a team of people I had never met before, and ended up making friends with the most awesome people!)
- Crim 10 Miler – August 2022 (it was so fun to run with the Turtle Girls again)
- Gourdy’s Pumpkin Run 5k – September 2022 (any run where I get to dress up in costume is the best, and our Daphne & Velma costumes were pretty fantastic for this race!)
- Capital City River Run half marathon relay – September 2022 (I was so happy to run this relay again, it is always such a fun time!)
- Detroit Marathon 1 mile, 5k and half marathon – October 2022 (this was my first time doing one of the challenge series for Detroit, and I loved it so much)
- Noland Trail 50k relay – November 2022 (I don’t think I could possibly say enough about how much fun this race was. Absolutely one of the most beautiful races I have ever run, and the people I ran with are some of the best ones I know!)
I love running, and instead of being bummed about the deconditioning I’ve experienced, the changes in my body and the slowing of my pace, I want to take it as an opportunity to start fresh.
These are my running goals for 2023:
- Set new baseline PRs in races of as many different distances as possible.
- Run at least 50 miles each month.
- Run 1200km (745.65 miles) in 2023.
I would love to hear how your year of running went for you, and what you have planned for 2023! Did you set new PRs? Did you run more miles than ever before? Was it a rebuilding year for you? Did you experience struggles and setbacks? What races do you want to run in 2023? What goals do you have for your running in the new year? Feel free to leave me a comment on my blog, Facebook or Instagram to tell me all about it, and Happy New Year to all!
RD on the Run 