Whirlwind of a year. Wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.

Goals (green = accomplished, orange = unobtainable, red = failed)

• Run 1000 miles. Dumb idea, just like it was last year. My body seems to only want to do a certain amount and it’s quite vocal when I exceed. While I used to be able to recover 3 miles a day, I can only recover 1 now, and this is the second straight year of it. I ran 350, which is half a mile more than last year. Given vacation and injury (my left knee has been bugging me this year), I’m pleased.
• Ride 2500 miles. Cake. Finished this with more than a month to go. Ended with 2715.
• Swim 50 miles. Crazy. Didn’t even come close. Swam 10, which was an improvement over last year so I’ll take it. I also didn’t schedule any triathlons so this was far less important than I’d have liked it to be.
• Compete in a road bike race. Did not due to wedding/honeymoon eating the prime training month, but did start and compete in most of a cyclocross season, which I’ll count.
• Bench 225. I was on pace for this, but once I hurt my knee I got rid of my gym membership and this goal went by the wayside.
• Go sub-19 in a 5k. Given running 1/3 of the mileage I planned, I still only missed this by seconds. Very pleased with my 5k speed on no training.
• Read 15 books. Finished with 16 and am a good part through the next, but that’ll count for next year. I read a lot of shorter stuff this year so while my book count increased, my page count decreased. Oh well.
• Review 36 spots on Yelp. Did it.
• Brew something. Never made my radar.
• Reach 170lbs. Didn’t come close. Need to focus better this year if I want to really compete.
• Write 52 blog posts. Smashed it, although I’ve been slacking of late.
• Get Netflix queue to 200. Went from 263 to sub-200 in half the year, but haven’t progressed much further as I’ve been adding plenty and often watch items not on the queue.

While I missed quite a few, I feel like plenty was accomplished and I was focusing on goals near every day. Lesson learned: do less.

Notable events

January – Visited the family in North Carolina, and Mom became an odds beater (surpassed 51-week average) and also hit the one year mark of being a Grade IV brain cancer survivor.

February – Turned 30, celebrated V-day at Komi after having spent more than an hour receiving busy signals to make the reservation, and went to Richmond for wedding planning.

March –  Went to Richmond again for more wedding fun, attended Fahad’s wedding, tried CrossFit, had my bachelor party in New Orleans, and saw First Aid Kit in concert.

April – Ran a sub-7 pace for the Cherry Blossom 10-miler, got married to the most wonderful woman I’ve ever met, and proceeded to spend three weeks with her across France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, and Switzerland.

May – Ran the Race For Hope (5k for brain cancer) with the whole family, visited North Carolina, and visited Louisville.

June – Ate a pig, rode in the Crystal Ride (20mph+ for 65 miles), and attended Greg’s man baby shower.

July – Moved into a new house (renting), and injured my knee and got an MRI in the process.

August – Got a new road bike (Cervelo R3), spent a week in North Carolina, built a new commuting/cyclocross bike, and my company was acquired.

September – Sold my original road bike, sold the first bike I built, attended the JMU v WVU game at FedEx, rode all 50 states in DC, and attended Hickok-Cole art night in Georgetown.

October – Spent a long weekend in Williamsburg, replaced a sink, split a massive amount of wood, and did my first cyclocross race. and second cyclocross races (6th and 13th)

November – Hosted two 5ks, hosted a game night, took a day off to ride my bike 108 miles through Maryland and back in VA, did two more cyclocross races (12th and 12th), and managed a 19:08 5k at the Virginia Run Turkey Trot.

December – Had a great final cyclocross race of the season (3rd), spent a week with the family on a Bahamian cruise and followed that by a long weekend in Charleston, SC.

2013 looks to have a whole lot going on as a handful of close friends are getting married, and we scour the US for places to end up. ADVENTURE TIME!

Previous years in review: 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011.