With NYE's six mile run, I closed out the year with one final PR to add to the list: 3,002.4 miles in 2015.
Here are my notable accomplishments for 2015:
5K: Ravenswood @ 16:15.6 (PR)
10Mi: Soldier Field @ 55:31 (PR)
Half Marathon: Naperville @ 1:14:07 (PR)
Marathon: California International Marathon @ 2:35:52 (PR)
Miles in a 7 day stretch: 116 (PR)
Annual Miles: 3,002.4 (PR)
5th place overall in the CARA Circuit (PR)
2nd place 35-39 CARA Age Group (Ties 2013 PR)
CARA Distance and Participation Awards
From a running perspective, 2015 was a lot of work and clearly my biggest year ever on many levels. I PR'd all major distances, with the exception of the 10K. I also ran two sub-2:40 marathons within 11 weeks of one another. I know own 10 sub-2:40 marathons. I almost can't believe that my 22nd marathon is my PR! I have no idea what I have left in the tank, but it's awesome to still be able to consider PR'ing at this point.
From a personal perspective, it was another huge milestone... I have finally found the woman that I want to spend the rest of my life with and I couldn't be anymore excited about it! Sasha and I became engaged on 11/20/15. Ironically, that's the same date my dad chose to ask my mom, 52 years ago. I had no idea, but it's pretty cool that it lined up that way. I could only hope that Sasha and I have as strong of a relationship as they have had.
From a profession perspective, 2015 wasn't fun and I'm glad to see it go. It started well and ended on a questionable note... The firm that I've been a partner at and employed with for the last 13.5 years has decided to close the doors. We've had fantastic returns over the years, but sorely lacked on diversifying our investor base. During the summer, two of our key investors passed away. Most of our AUM was hence effectively yanked with their passings, and we chose to close the doors before our final (86 year old) investor passes. Unfortunately our returns had been somewhat volatile since mid-2014, so it left us without a clear marketing path to raise fresh capital and very expensive options for continuing operations as they were. This was very frustrating considering I was above my highwater mark at 2QE15, and the mark was very much in reach at our closing, in spite of a volatile 3Q15. I finished the year grossing over 6% while all comparable indices in the market were crushed.
So with that, 2015 is a wrap and I'm looking forward to an exciting 2016. I'm not sure if I'll gun for the circuit again this year, but I'm leaning to the Chicago Marathon after a two year hiatus. Sasha and I don't have a date settled, but I suspect I'll have more info in three or four months. And lastly, I'm looking forward to moving on from New Salem. For the last few months, I've been involved with winding down the firm and that task is nearly complete as of this morning. On to the next thing!
