2008 Wrap - Up

Some highlights from 2008.
The year started with a knee injury, and I was feeling flat, that is until I was notified that I'd been awarded the Australian Ultra Runners Association Rising Star Award for 2007. This provided me with a much needed motivation boost, I had to prove that I was a worthy winner fo the award. I kicked off my account with a PB at the 40 miler (5:43) with a late fade due to lack of training. Started to ramp up the training and completed 70k trail in 7:36 just before I went to Cambodia for 2 weeks. In May I recorded a PB of 4:02 at the Bunbury 50k to run 3rd Male. The MB100K was a huge PB of over 3hrs 11:18. Next was the Perth Marathon, which without a taper was another PB in 3:10.53. I was in full training for Caboolture 24hr at this point however minor niggles prevented a flawless preparation. Caboolture was a significant point in my running career when I finally put up a strong performance running to prove to myself that the rising star award was not a fluke 180.63k in 24hrs. A dnf in the Dwellingup 50 miler was not unexpected as it was only 2 weeks after Caboolture, then a few weeks later I ran my first 1/2 marathon in almost 2 years at freo, finishing in 1:31 and picking up a bad knee injury.

Cambodia again for 2 weeks with very little running, a good time to refresh myself after Caboolture and regain some motivation. Returned just before Rotto and decided against the marathon, opting for the 10k instead and a slow build up to six inch. Put in some good consistent training and was rewarded with a 4:00.34 at Six Inch to run 4th without a taper. Was running well the next day and the training continues.

2008 Stats
Total k's - 4343
Weekly Avg - 83.5k
Biggest week - 190k
Ultras - 5 (not including training runs over 42k)
Marathons - 1
PB's - 7

All in all a very satisfying year!