I’m not usually one for end-of-year retrospectives, but 2025 was a big year for running, so it feels appropriate. I fit in a lot of miles, in a lot of places, for the first time had a coach, and under his guidance trained using this crazy new approach called the Norwegian Singles (NSA).
2025 Goals
I started the year, as I tend to do, with a review of my high-level goals. These three goals haven’t changed much since I started running Peterthons:
- Injury prevention
- Run as many miles, over as many hours, in as many places, as possible, without breaking goal #1
- Get faster (or more efficient), keeping in mind goals #1 and #2
Again as usual, none of these goals are very specific, but I had a few of those as well:
- Run a fast Peterthon
- Run a trail ultra at a consistent pace
One of my best friends got married the day of the 50k I was planning on running, so I postponed it. And then, for the third year in a row, the poor air quality caused by North American forest fires took a few critical weeks out of my training season, forcing me to adjust my plans. So instead of an ultra, I ran a second, “fun”, Peterthon.
Injury
I’m extremely grateful to have had no major injury. But I wasn’t fully injury free: a purple big toenail took me out for a very frustrating week. I wore a new pair of shoes that both made my feet sweat a lot, and allowed them to move too much. The unfortunate result was that once I landed in Paris, my nail was purple, and it was only a matter of time before I could barely walk. I’ll take this over a broken shoulder any day, but it still sucked: it made it harder to be on vacation, and meant I couldn’t explore new cities by my preferred mode (running). Furthermore, my foot did weird things to compensate, so by now, six months later, other toes on that foot are still recovering from pull the extra weight.
Miles
By the numbers
As I write this, I’m on course to run just over 1,800 miles, making it my second biggest year, behind 2021 (1,994 miles). It’s not quite an apples-to-apples comparison, because other than 2019, when I rode 1,242 miles, I always ride a lot too. (This year I’ve ridden just under 1,700 miles, compared to 4,000 in 2020, or 3,000 in 2023.)
By time – which is again sketchy because sometimes I log commutes and sometimes I don’t – I’ll have logged around 600 hours, the third most, behind 2024 (634 hours), and 2023 (607 hours).
But the reason I consider 2025 a big year for running is all the other stuff that happened.
By location
- I ran the entirety of the Champs-Élysées. Not as cool as riding it, but on the way back to the hotel…
- I ran past Eliud Kipchoge on the Seine, and can’t remember a time I was more star-struck.
- I got 59 explorer tiles in Europe (in France, Germany, and the Netherlands)
- I got a handful more tiles in Missouri, New York, Wisconsin, and Texas
Performance
The Norwegian Singles Approach is no joke. While it didn’t help my marathon time much, I crushed my previous bests at shorter distances (all unofficial times for pre-measured distances, unless otherwise noted, because that’s how I roll now):
- Mar 09: 19:29 5k (unofficial PR)
- Apr 06: 89:42 Half Marathon (unofficial PR)
- May 24: 3:19:28 Marathon (Peterthon V)
- Jul 18: 19:35 5k
- Jul 25: 5:36 1mi (unofficial PR)
- Sep 21: 19:53 5k (official PR)
- Oct 24: 5:43 1mi
- Nov 23: 3:21:48 Marathon (Peterthon VI)
Peterthon V
I was feeling good for Peterthon V. NSA had given me a strong boost of confidence, and now that Peterthons are more routine, I slept well, rather than staying up all night being needlessly anxious.
Unfortunately, I overestimated my abilities. I ran North to Plaza del Lago, and my parents came out to cheer me on at the Bahai Temple. The route there is very familiar to me, but what I didn’t realize was how different it is to just get there than it is to follow a specific, measured route; the mental energy required to follow my pre-defined course was immense. I struggled.
I still ended up with a decent time, but definitely feel like I could’ve done better.
Peterthon VI
This was my “fun” Peterthon of the year, and I’m grateful it wasn’t my fast one: I lost a couple weeks due to the air quality, and for the days leading up to it felt a cold coming on. Unlike Peterthon V, though, I kept the route simple, and very familiar. (I had to make a small adjustment out of fear that the Oak Street curve would be under water.)
I put in much less effort than Peterthon V, thanks to Brittney, who ran her relaxed Brittneython the same day. Not only was that great encouragement and very motivating, but her attitude about it made me actually treat this like a fun marathon.
And in the end I only did 2 minutes worse than Peterthon V. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Other stuff
Atreyu
Trump has proudly destroyed a lot of good things, but this one crushed me – the tariffs killed my all-time absolute favoritest ever shoe company, Atreyu. I bought as much of their inventory as I could, but unfortunately they only had two pairs of my favorite (Base Model v3) so it’ll be sad when those are worn out. (I also got four pairs of their Daily Trainer v2.)
I love these shoes. Even though this section is a small percent of this rambling post, Atreyu shutting down is more than half of why I wanted to post this at all.
Motivation
Work and life have been stressful lately, and together with the cool balance of NSA, my relationship to running has changed. I find myself less motivated to try really hard, and more motivated to make this sustainable enough to last me well into my 50s or beyond. It’s become so important to me, though, it’s worth moving other aspects of my life around to make room for it.