2024 Highlights: By all accounts, 2024 was a great year for me! No injuries, no setbacks, and a number of accomplishments and highlights. Here are a selected few:
New England Runner / Marathon Sports Athlete of the Month: This was a complete surprise and quite the honor for me. Tommy 5K reached out to me and asked if I had seen the most recent issue, and said I might want to check it out. Certainly one of my top highlights of the year!
Abbott Age Group World Ranking: I had no idea, but Abbott World Majors pulls data from hundreds of marathons around the world and tabulates age group rankings. I was shocked and thrilled to learn that this year, I had the 6th fastest marathon time in the country in my age group, and 41st in the world. Getting an invite to the 2025 Age Group World Championships at the NYC Marathon was an added bonus!
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| Surprised and thrilled to be ranked 6th in the country in my age group in the marathon --- (My world ranking slipped from 41 to 50 by year-end, but no complaints there either; just something to try to improve upon next year) |
Ireland: The travel highlight of the year was a family trip to Ireland in August. Unfortunately Mark opted out as he prefers the warmer climates, but Jana, Matthew, and I enjoyed a 7-day tour of the Emerald Isle, including Northern Ireland. Travel report here
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| Carrauntoohil, highest point in Ireland |
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| The famed Cliffs of Moher |
Cross-country trip: With Matthew finishing up grad school in California, I assisted him moving back home in December. We took the long way home by taking 11 days, driving approximately 3,800 miles through 17 states, visiting 8 national parks, hiking 3 state highpoints, and running 110 miles in 9 states along the way. I'm working on a travel recap which I'll post soon.
Concerts: Kevin "Mo" MacDonald called me an "old rocker", which fits and I took it as a compliment! Attended two great shows in 2024:
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| Guadalupe Peak, 8,751' High Point of Texas, in the Guadalupe Mountains National Park |
Concerts: Kevin "Mo" MacDonald called me an "old rocker", which fits and I took it as a compliment! Attended two great shows in 2024:
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| Rolling Stones! (Gillette Stadium, Foxboro, MA, May) Mick Jagger gave an amazing performance at age 80! |
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| AC/DC! (Croke Park, Dublin, Ireland, August) Awesome! And I've got tickets to see Brian, Angus, and the crew stateside at Gillette Stadium in May 2025! |
Volunteerism: I firmly believe in giving back to the community, and I certainly try to practice what I preach. I continued my volunteering roles with both Westerly Track & Athletic Club and The Westerly Land Trust. In 2024, I took on a new role by putting my financial background to work in becoming an IRS certified volunteer to prepare tax returns at the Jonnycake Center for those that qualify. I wasn't sure how this would work out, but so many individuals were so appreciative that I'll help out again in 2025.
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2024 Goals Assessment: (Last year's goals in black; assessment against those goals in red.)
- Road marathon: Complete in sub-2:55 Success! Ran the Indianapolis Marathon in 2:53:26
- Mileage: 3,000 (should be attainable if I stay injury-free this year) Success! Total mileage 3,132
- Trails: Run at least one new trail race. Success! Ran four new (to me) trail races: Vermont Overland (VT), Goodwin Forest 30K (CT), Run the Ridge 10K (Ireland), and Three Sisters Skyline Half Marathon (OR).
- Set a new age-group course record: As I turn 60 this year, I have my eye on breaking at least one of the following 60+ men's course records at 2024 RI summer races: Blessing of the Fleet (1:01:55, 1993), Run 4 Kerri 4M (23:57, 2003), Bobby Doyle 5M (29:56, 2022) Success! Took down the Blessing of the Fleet 31-year old record with a 1:01:28, and Run 4 Kerri in a 23:29. I didn't get chance to run Bobby Doyle due to a conflict, but I did take down the M60 course record at Indianapolis Marathon by 3 1/2 minutes in a 2:53:26.
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| Most miles run ever |
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| No surprises here. Top three municipalities exactly the same as last year, and then little change of order in the remaining. I guess I'm a creature of habit after all? |
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Pictorial Highlights of 2024 by Month:
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| January: Millenium Mile, NH A disappointing 5:22 |
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| February: Quinebaug Trail, CT (Matt Sweeney and Justin Pearce in background). Brady led for much of this 18-mile run in the snow. --- Fun fact: I completed all 20 courses of the Border Patrol Challenge; Brady completed 19 of those with me. (Hoping for snow in 2025!) |
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| March: West Thompson Dam, CT Brady is on the trail here, about 5' below him. We literally and figuratively got in over our head on this crazy-flooded 8-mile run/swim around and in the COLD pond. Sorry, Brady! |
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| April: Middletown 10K, CT Ran well at this USATF-CT race in a 36:45 (5:54 average pace) |
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| May: Vermont Overland Course preview the day before with Brady and maybe 30 others Love this photo that the race organizers took! |
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| June: Goodwin Forest 30K Trail Race, CT Preparing to cross the finish line. In first place overall!! |
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| July: Blessing of the Fleet 10-Mile, Narragansett, RI On my way to taking down the M60 Age Group Course Record in a 61:28! |
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| August: Run the Ridge 10K, Laragh, Ireland Overtaking a few runners on the final downhill section en route to a 7th place overall, and first in age group |
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| September: Three Sisters Skyline Half Marathon, Sisters, OR 1st in age group |
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| October: Block Island Half Marathon Podium finish (3rd overall) in a 1:23:40 (1st and 2nd place might have been just a little bit younger than me!) Low key race, and given the hills and wind, plus running as an island the whole race, I'll take it! |
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| November: Indianapolis Marathon Took down the M60+ Course Record! 2:53:26 (Love this pic Jana took) |
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| December: Joshua Tree National Park, CA Out on a 14-mile run here on just one of many cool places I visited with Matthew on our cross-country trip |
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Top 3 Race Performances:
1. Blessing of the Fleet 10-Mile Road Race, Narragansett, RI, 1:01:28
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| My only goal was to take down the M60+ age group record, and it was by no means a given, as it had stood for 31 years and the temp out there was 81°F at the start. This photo was the moment of truth! I beat the CR by 27 seconds! Over the moon! |
2. Indianapolis Marathon, Indianapolis, IN, 2:53:26
3. Goodwin Forest 30K Trail Race, Hampton, CT, 2:38:37 |
| I was in some serious pain during and post-marathon, but I pushed through it with a lot of mental self-coaxing and took down the M60+ Course Record by 3 1/2 minutes! |
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| Couldn't wait to get out of my grubby and muddy shoes and hydration pack. Unlike the two races above, I had no expectations here, and was thrilled to take over the lead about 4 miles in and hold it to the finish! 1st overall! |
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Bottom 3 Race Performances:
1. New Bedford Half Marathon, New Bedford, MA, 1:23:37
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| This is tough to pick, because I didn't have any races in 2024 where my time was absolutely atrocious and I completely blew up. This was a windy day, which explains some of my time (I was shooting for ~1:20-1:21), but what was most disappointing for me was the wind was there for everyone but so many people were just passing me easily. Running the 1st mile in 5:48 was not smart, and I just didn't pace or execute this race well. |
2. St Lawrence Marathon, Cornwall, ON, Canada, 2:57:50
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| As with New Bedford Half, it's not that this was an abominable time, but rather it was way off my target and I just progressively slowed so much in the 2nd half that it was really frustrating and depressing to see runner after runner passing me. |
3. Li'l Rhody Runaround 8-Mile Trail Race, Charlestown, RI, 53:02
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| I look like I'm running fast here, and in fact I closed decently, but this was my slowest race since 2011 and I run this pretty much every year. I was quite sore during and after the race, and the reality is I overdid it and had no business being out there one week after Indianapolis Marathon. |
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2024 Stats:
- Races run: 28 (2023: 29, 2022: 30, 2021: 21)
- Race breakdown by terrain: Road - 19, Trail - 8, Beach - 1, Tri - 0, Swim - 1
- Age group wins: 23
- Overall wins: 2
- Miles run: 3,032
- Elevation run: 192,305'
- Most elevation gain in a single run: 3,517' (Carrauntoohil, Ireland)
- Hours run: 430 (2023: 387, 2022: 428, 2021: 357)
- Days run: 345 (2023: 325, 2022: 352, 2021: 302)
- Lowest mileage week: 23 (November, post-Indianapolis Marathon)
- Highest mileage week: 83 (March, while training for St Lawrence Marathon)
- Highest mileage day: 27.2 (tie: Pachaug-Nehantic BPC trail run in March, Indianapolis Marathon including warm-up)
- Longest running streak: 59 days (August - October)
- Longest non-running streak: 3 days (November, recovery after Indianapolis Marathon)
- Number of states run in: 21: RI, CT, MA, NH, ME, VT, NY, MD, SC, GA, PA, OH, IN, WV, AR, MO, TX, NM, AZ, CA, OR (highest number of states run in one year)
- Number of countries run in: 4: USA, Canada, Ireland, UK
- Run furthest from home: Slieve Donard, Northern Ireland, UK
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2025 Goals:
- Boston Marathon: At my 7th and perhaps final Boston, break my Boston PR (2:56:16)
- Mileage: 3,133 (one more than my PR in 2024)
- Triathlon: I haven't gotten on the bike since Ironman Maryland (2023), but hoping to get in at least a sprint tri
- Set a new age-group course record: I set three of them in 2024. Can I keep the streak going?
- Abbott Age Group World Rankings: Improve on my 2024 results of 6th fastest nationally and 50th in the world (This may be a tall order, but that's what goals are for!)
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And that's a wrap on 2024! Definitely one of my best running years all time. Looking forward to going after it in 2025 as well as catching up with many running friends. Happy roads and happy trails!
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