On the running front, 2013 was my best year ever. With my highest overall mileage accumulated throughout any year, and setting personal bests in multiple distances (5k, 10k, 13.1 miles and 26.2 miles), I will not complain one bit about the progress made from January to December.
Not wanting to drop the ball, January of 2014 was among my top 5 months for mileage. We took a Saturday off from the long run to volunteer at Calico Racing’s ‘Running From An Angel’. The aid station we had was around mile 9.9 for marathon and 50 mile race runners. For the return trip, it was race mile 17 and change for the marathoners.
During the time volunteering, there was the usual change in demeanor from the outgoing and returning runners. A couple of them stopped to catch their breath and chat a little. One such gentleman imparted some wisdom to us, “There are three things we pay for in this world: stupidity, procrastination and pleasure. This… This is my pleasure.” He was wearing a 50 states marathoner shirt, with blood stains and a well worn appearance to complete the shirt’s authenticity.
February has been a productive running month thus far. If my plan holds true, February, 2014 will be my first 60 mile month. Even more impressive (to me, anyhow) is neither January nor February have any race miles to add in. Then, the tough part comes in. Tapering in March. With the Sand Hollow Marathon on my schedule for March 29, as a tune-up/gauge fitness race for me, leading up to the Calico Racing ‘Labor of Love’ 50k in May.
Whoever said running was cheap may not have had as much fun racing as I do.
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The motivation to develop new products for the various ‘Merch brands has been pretty high lately. Thanks to some friends looking to get apparel produced for some groups they are in, new projects have begun to roll out. With some more inspiration and dedicated time, additional, original designs will be published in the storefronts.
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At the day job, I have been monitoring various marketing efforts, determining their efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Unhappy with some of the results one of our paid marketing avenues was generating, a new strategy was developed and tested throughout January. Now that February has come around, I have been getting more aggressive with the newly configured strategy. Thus far, views and more importantly, interactions, are up.
If this strategy continues to work as envisioned, our ROI should jump pretty significantly, while our spend stays steady, or even goes through a reduction. This budget spend reduction will be key in allowing other strategy testing to take place, without taking money away from other efforts.
Monitoring vendor managed marketing efforts takes some digging and patience to wade through their reporting methods. It is also a steady task to keep them on message, and do what they say they are doing.
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