This annual review and preview takes a slightly different format from the one I wrote in early 2025. The sections that follow — Running Strengths in 2025, Running Weaknesses in 2025, Best Runs of 2025, and Running Goals for 2026 — are all spontaneous sections. I could just as easily have included other sections, such as a month-by-month running review like I did last year, my top personal running gear from 2025, or a photo essay from throughout the year.
I share the following both as a window into my running and in case it helps others to find they share common running challenges and triumphs with others. I guess in part this article … nay, post, is a throwback to the late-2000s personal running blog origins of this website. Long live Blogspot, but on to 2026!
A look back at Mount Catherine from McKellar Saddle in New Zealand. All photos: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
Running Strengths in 2025
Consistency
With 2025 being my ninth-straight full year of a daily running streak, it’s admittedly somewhat hard to be inconsistent, but it’s possible. I’d guess there were fewer perfunctory streakkeepers than in any other year of my streak. My four lowest weeks were all 25 to 27 miles, during two sets of housework weeks, which I’m sure are higher low points than in previous years. Everything else was basically 35 miles or higher. (The two other lower weeks were once while wandering Shanghai, China, and another post-UTMB coverage.)
Volume
While I didn’t hit my high-end target of 3,000 miles for the year, I ran more in 2025 than in any of my 33 years of running — by over 200 miles — with 2,915 miles. And without the pair of 250-mile-ish weeks that I ran in my previous annual high in 2024. My highest mileage for a week, from Monday to Sunday, was only 130 miles, but some fun adventuring in New Zealand in early 2024 meant I had logged 830 miles by the end of March. And likely double that through the end of June. (Oh, Strava, someday add easy custom data quantifying!) There were six 100- to 130-mile weeks and another couple between 90 and 100 miles.
Improved Achilles
Just about two years ago, I ran down a mountain with both Achilles in pain. In that moment, I thought that would be my final season of mountain running. More than 20 years of running on one bum Achilles and at least a dozen years on the other meant the pleasure was no longer worth the pain. Somehow, out of that moment, I put in the rather modest rehab work it took to get in some big training and a big race in 2024, and I’ve carried that momentum with me. I’m nowhere near 100% compliant with the eccentric drops that bring me lasting relief. No, I listen to my body and substitute stretching and/or massage when my Achilles attachments are tired. This game will never end, but I’m playing it well enough right now.
A couple big days in the Ashburton Lakes not long after running the Around the Mountains Cycle Trail in four days means I logged 227 miles in 11 days in late March and early April 2025.
Running Weaknesses in 2025
Lacking a Big Hairy Audacious Goal
As I wrote in September 2025, I failed to set a Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) in 2025. In short, I should have returned to the Ultra Gobi 250 Mile. I had more general fitness and more specific base due to lots of time running with a weighted pack than I could have hoped for when I returned home to Colorado from New Zealand in late April and held onto that reasonably well through May, June, and even July. But really, ever since returning home, my motivation imploded, I self-sabotaged by overloading on personal work projects, and skipped the outdoor adventures that had made my summer of 2024 one of my best ever. At best, it was a season of what could have been. I plan to bag a BHAG early in autumn 2026 and a different one around the same time in 2027. It’s to be determined exactly what those might be.
Not Getting Faster
Back in March 2024, I wrote about wanting to change gears and work on getting faster. I’ve yet to give that a real chance, even if I have a blast whenever I toe the line for a short race or actually let ‘er rip on the rare training run. If I’m honest, I’m scared. Scared that I’ll reaggravate my long-standing Achilles issues. Scared that I’ll set back dreamier adventure plans. Scared that it’ll hurt. Scared … well, just scared, or maybe more appropriately, anxious about going hard. But I’ve got to get over that. Especially given my Achilles’ relative healthiness, I can mix in some faster work now, be it as intervals, some faster steady-state running, and even a couple of parkruns, as I’ve got one that starts maybe two kilometers away from home for the next few months in New Zealand.
While oddly satisfying, processing a few years’ worth of firewood was not an adequate substitute for big summer adventures!
Best Runs of 2025
In no particular order:
In June, I ran my first-ever self-supported 100 miler on and near Colorado’s Grand Mesa. That alone was empowering. But I also caught 10 species of fish along the way while logging 10,000-plus feet of climbing (and drinking a particularly heavy beer) in less than 48 hours to become the first person in the small group of folks who do such run/fish things to finish what’s called the FINSANITY! challenge. It was a great run outing in and of itself and probably my best single day as an outdoorsman, catching all 10 species and covering over 40 miles in less than 12 hours. (While I tangentially wrote about FINSANITY! on iRunFar as the basis for running your own self-created ultramarathon, I still dream of writing this adventure up in full for a fishing or general outdoor publication.)
Kicking off my self-supported ultra next to Bonham Reservoir on Grand Mesa.
At the last moment, I signed up for my hometown “road” marathon as a training day, and that it was. I managed to control my effort on the outbound run with relatively little walking except the final pushes up the high-altitude and steep California and Hurricane Passes before using my well-meted energy for a decent descent off Hurricane Pass and a strong last seven miles back to town. I was proud of that final hour of effort and conserved energy. Oh yeah, I finished third.
One of the many stunning views from the 2025 Silverton Alpine Marathon.
In April 2025, at the end of that season in New Zealand, I decided to have a send-off mission, as they call big days out in New Zealand. I’d run out the northwest side of Lake Hawea a few times over the summer to explore the Hunter Valley above the lake, and a lap of the lake just seemed like a natural challenge to take on. All went well enough with me coming through 50 miles in a hair under 10 hours and finishing up the 65.5-mile lap with nearly 7,000 feet of climbing in 12:17. I wrote about this adventure in my May 2025 piece Collecting Strength: May Your Cookie Jar Overfloweth.
Nearing the end of my lap around Lake Hawea.
In November, I took a very last-minute trip to Saint Kitts in the Caribbean to join three generations of my family on vacation. In briefly researching the island, I noticed that the main part of the island had a coastal ring road encircling the central volcano. I woke very early on our final full day of the visit, ran the couple of miles over to the loop, and got to it just after 4 a.m. I was happy to escape the heat and much of the traffic, and even happier to witness so much of the island in a way most foreigners never do — at ground level, at a pedestrian pace. I managed to run strong enough the whole way, covering the just over 30-mile lap in 5 hours and 20 minutes.
Any early morning view from my lap of Saint Kitts.
Honorable Mentions
Completing the rugged Northwest Circuit on New Zealand’s Stewart Island with Meghan Hicks; 100 miles of pacing AJW at the Cocodona 250 Mile; running the volunteers orienteering race after helping to commentate the inaugural English livestream of the Ultra Gobi 250 Mile; a waterfront run on my first ever evening in Shanghai, China; a few trail runs through New Jersey’s Washington’s Crossing State Park with my sister while visiting family; the Hopewell Valley Turkey Trot 5k cross-country race in New Jersey; a run with two of my college teammates in our old stomping grounds.
AJW on the outskirts of Sedona, Arizona en route to finishing the 2025 Cocodona 250 Mile.
Running Goals for 2026
Biggest Year Ever!
Let’s make this the year of 3,000 miles. That still sounds daunting, but I finished within 100 miles of 3,000 in 2025 and would have zoomed past it with either a little motivation or a couple of adventures last summer. Maybe it’ll even be a 5,000-kilometer year. I’d best get to adventuring this season in New Zealand!
Get Out for More Big Summer Adventures
As much as I missed not running the 2025 Ultra Gobi 250 Mile, I might have missed summer adventuring around the Rocky Mountain West — which usually means from my front door — just as much! I sure got after it in the summers of 2020 and 2024, and I remember both those summers fondly for it!
Work on My Weakness
From a coaching standpoint, training for one’s failure points in a big race is right up there with having fun and being consistent in my primary philosophies. Whatever BHAG I eventually sign up for, I’ll certainly train my failure points, but here I think I mean my weaknesses, which might be different. For most of the past decade, my Achilles have been my primary weakness. In a good way, over two recent long runs, I questioned, are my Achilles still my main weakness? Perhaps I’ve improved my Achilles enough that my hamstrings are now my weakness, and I’m excited about that. It’s not that my hammies have gotten worse; it’s that I’ve improved another situation enough that they might be the new weak link. Maybe that weakness stays in my hamstrings, or it becomes my core, or my body composition, or, if only it could be, my general fitness.
Work on Running Uphill
This article was almost about four runs in late October and early November that changed my running and my beliefs about it. Basically, I’d given up on running uphill. Anything more than a gentle incline meant powerwalking because of chronic Achilles pain. Then, I headed out on a loop on some newly constructed trails above my home in Silverton, Colorado. I merely wanted to check out part of the steeper side that had been completed early in 2025, but, much to my surprise, I ran every step of the roughly 900-foot climb over 2.5 miles. I did so three more times in the weeks that followed. Although I’ve recently arrived in New Zealand in worse physical shape than I was in the past two years, I’ve felt much more confident running the rolling sections on the local trails. Time to lean into running some more hills.
The view of Silverton from the top on my first lap up the Bakers Park loop.
Writing More Long-Form Reports
I’ve received enough comments over the past few months about my Ultra Gobi reports, which discuss my general approach, as well as my logistics and gear, to realize that they have been really helpful to others. I don’t think that’s unique to that race, as I received similar feedback on my other race reports many years ago. Rather than craft the perfect narrative story, I tried to overshare some of the mundane details from before and during the outing and how they affect me, for better or worse. I’ll take being useful over compelling any day. So, here’s hoping I can share two or three outing reports this year.
Don’t Be Afraid to Train
I’ll admit it that most of my big efforts the past couple of years have come part and parcel with adventure, and I get out for oodles of “just runs,” but it’s rare that I get myself out there moving with purpose on a random Tuesday. Four entirely runnable 16 milers in December — including some with effort — suggest I might be turning a corner. Whether it’s an interval session, a sustained uphill effort, or a progressive long run, I hope 2026 marks a return to more regular training sessions.
Enjoy it More
Now, enjoying running more might seem on its face to be in contrast with training more, but hardly. First, a well-run hard effort is often a heckuva lot of fun! Second, I’m mostly talking about enjoying easy or run-of-the-mill days more. I’ll admit that over the past 15 years, my relationship with running has become complicated. I’m anxious or even scared of running plenty often enough. I know that sounds strange, especially coming from someone who led a running website for 15 years, but, well, maybe there’s a connection there. Regardless, I aim to put a little more fun, relaxation, or just ease into my everyday runs. That’d be nice!
Enjoying the “run commute” to join Kilian Jornet for a leg of his States of Elevation tour.
Call for Comments
- What are some of the highlights, lowlights, strengths, weaknesses, and memories from your running in 2025?
- What are your running plans, goals, and the like for 2026?
