2025 Year of Running in Review

How'd it go in 2025, running-wise? 

Volume 

As of noon on December 31st, I have run 3,061 miles. That's the most I've ever run in a year, so I feel pretty good about that. I got less vert than I did last year, and have still never cracked 450,000 feet in a year. You can see data from most of the past decade below. (2018 was low thanks to a long summer hike and 2020 had the pandemic, injury, and a long hike.)


  

2025 Races

At the end of 2024 I only planned out the first half of 2025: my buildup to Hardrock. Not much else in life went according to plan, but the races did:

March 8: Seneca Creek Greenway 50K 

March 15: Elizabeth Furnace 50K 
April 26: Lake Sonoma 50 Miler
May 9-10: Hellbender 100 Miler
July 11-12: Hardrock 100 Miler

 

I wasn't quite as fast at Hardrock as I was eight years ago, but I still had a good day. 

 

In the second half of the year I ended up running two more races, where I slightly improved my times over previous results.

 

September 20-21: IMTUF 100 Miler

December 7: California International Marathon

 

So, all in all pretty good: my most mileage in a year, three hundreds, and a marathon PR.  

 

What's on Tap for 2026?

Nano and I are hoping to go back to Alaska, and I got into Hardrock again, so those are the two headline items. I have to build up to Hardrock, but with Alaska I don't know how much PTO I'll have. I don't think I'll have enough to do the Hardrock-Ouray double. Will I even have enough to acclimate for Hardrock? Do oxygen deprivation tents work? "Yes, but with caveats" say Claude and ChatGPT. 

 

Here's how the schedule is looking:

February 14: TWOT

February 28: Hashawa Hills 50K

March 14: Elizabeth Furnace 50K

April 11: Gorge Waterfalls 100K?

May 16: Massanutten 100? 

June: Alaska

July: Hardrock

August: Wyoming Range 100?

September: Dark Divide 100?

 

February and March seem somewhat set TWOT 100 starts Friday morning, but I think I can just start Saturday morning instead since I'll have Monday off for Presidents Day and it's a fatass.  

 

Much of the rest is up in the air. For April, I'm on the waitlist for Gorge Waterfalls, but that involves PTO and travel, and both the Cherry Blossom 10-miler (I'm fast already, why not break 65 minutes?) and the Istria 100-miler in Croatia (obviously even more PTO, but prettier) are the same weekend. 

 

For May, Massanutten would be extremely easy to get to, and it's organized by my local run club, but I've done it before and did not like it. The course is so rocky and humid and slow that the whole second half my only thought was "I have to finish so I never have to come back." So should I do it again? Probably not. Should I go down to Georgia and run Cruel Jewel 100 that weekend instead? That could be just as, if not more, miserable. Is there anything else on the east coast in May or early June that's worth doing? (Laurel Highlands and Manitou's Revenge are too late in the year, they overlap with Alaska.)


The second half of the year is totally open. I don't think any race besides Hardrock or Ouray truly requires acclimating to altitude (speaking for myself), so I should have enough PTO to fit in a couple additional races. But which ones? Will you be at any of the Hardrock qualifiers? (Not that I need a qualifier per se, it's just usually a decent signal of quality.) Suggestions/coordination welcome!

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