I was reading through some of my posts from the beginning of the year and couldn't find one where I specifically stated any goals, but I had a few in my head. I knew I wanted to run another big race of at least half-marathon distance and I wanted to focus on increasing my speed in 2008.

I'm happy to say I accomplished both.

I ran the Lehigh Valley Half Marathon in April and shaved about 11 minutes from my previous best half marathon time, which qualifies in both categories.

I also ran a 5K PR at the Komen Race for the Cure and a five miler PR at the Celtic Solstice Five Miler.

Those are definitely some of the highlights from this year. I'm really happy with the progress I've made. I am consistently running faster and stronger than I was in past years.

Before, I'd often punk out in the winter and fade away from running a little bit because of the weather. This is the first year I've run fairly consistently from the end of November through December, and it's something I plan to continue in 2009.

The only real negative from this year was my knee injury that happened back in May. It was nothing I could have prevented, just a strange problem where my knee doesn't track straight up and down in the socket but instead pulls to the left. Unfortunately though, I missed the entire summer of running. I did almost two months of physical therapy before I was back on my feet.

I had to DNS the Baltimore 10 Miler in June and I couldn't register for the Virginia Beach Half Marathon over Labor Day weekend for the same reason. My knee also forced me to miss the Philadelphia Distance Run, another race I had had my eye on.

I think I recovered stronger though. I still tape my knee in longer distances as a precaution, but other than that I haven't had problems. Since the injury I have posted some of my fastest race times since I started running regularly and racing two and a half years ago.

I'm still working on my goals and planning my race calendar for 2009, which I will update with later.

This will most likely be my last post before the holidays so I hope you all have a great holiday season!