It is the time of year to look back on the previous 12 months and reflect on the good, the bad, and the ugly.  A lot happens in 12 months.  Much of what happens isn’t planned.   For example, who would plan to have Plantar Fasciitis for 10 months and counting? This time last year I had no idea I’d be typing this post from the comfort of my own house or that I’d be enjoying a two week vacation because I’m still working at a school.

I did know that I’d have completed my second marathon, though I was hoping to be heading to Boston. I also knew that Team Cross would have some great adventures and fun throughout the year and we did! Each year we make a book and/or calendar from MyPublisher with pictures from the past year.  It is a great way to reflect back on some of the great times of the year.

I’ve written a variety of “Best Of” posts in past years.  This is going to be a tamed down version! The two most objective things are race performance (based on time) and most read blog posts (based on page views).

I think the only race I ran this year without being injured was the Securian Winter Carnival Half Marathon, but it was cut in half and really, really cold.  The most scenic race was the Lake Minnetonka Half Marathon. I only ran 8 races this year (last year I ran 14).  My best three races were all in the spring (which isn’t too surprising).

#3 Human Race 8k

#2 Brian Kraft 5k

and…

#1  TC 1 Mile

Now for the most read blog posts…  I use Google Analytics for these numbers.  So far in 2009 I’ve had 12,964 visits and 18,136 pageviews. The best day at Team Cross Runs was on February 3 (during Salmonella outbreak). For my top 5 posts I took out the obvious one of people landing at my home page (1,835 views) and the obscure Merry Christmas 2007 post which still amazes me (1,160 views).

#5 Running the Minneapolis Riverfront – 445 views

#4 Caffeine: A Banned Substance – 488 views

#3 Treatments for Plantar Fasciitis – 719 views

#2 Stillwater Marathon Has Problems – 767 views  (this actually sat above the Stillwater Marathon site                                 for awhile in Google)

#1 Salmonella and Powerbars – 1,999 views

My craziest adventure in 2009 was winter camping in February at Afton State Park.  But probably the craziest run I did in 2009 was when the temperature was -21 and the windchill was -34.

* I used the McMillian Calculator to pick my best races.

Here is a  list of my best performances at each distance this year:

TC 1 Mile 5:27  MCQ = 39:13

USATF 5000m 19:51MCQ = 41:14

Human Race 8k 31:27 MCQ = 39:38

Get in Gear 10k 41:30 MCQ = 41:30

MDRA 15k 1:03:24 MCQ = 40:55

Rochester Half-Marathon 1:33:22  MCQ = 41:58

City of Lakes 25k 1:48:40  MCQ = 40:34

Twin Cities Marathon 3:25:43  MCQ = 43:41

Based on how I felt during and after the race I’m going to say it is between the MDRA 15k and City of Lakes 25k.  City of Lakes was an average pace of 6:59 while the MDRA 15k was a 6:48 pace. The number next to the finish time above is the McMillian Calculator‘s 10k equivalent.

I would have picked City of Lakes as my best performance of 2008 but according the the somewhat scientific method of McMillian the TC 1 Mile was my best overall performance, then the 8k, then City of Lakes.

I know that using McMillian’s calculator isn’t neccessarily the most precise way to figure this out.  Do you have a better method?