As we welcome in the new year, let's now forget that in 2021 we still lived in a time with mask, fear, suffering, anxiety, job loss, businesses closing and yet still some grit and determination to not let this pandemic define us! Yes, we are still surrounded by the virus and more and more strains are popping up, but let's not coward down. Let's begin 2022 with hope and a mind set to stand up and push back.
I finished 2021 with a total of 2,319.2 miles. That was a mixture of run, bike & swim. I had hoped to get 1,000 on run this year but didn't really pay attention to total mileage until it was too late to cram the miles in to reach that goal. I have to remind myself that I'm not just running... 😃😁
Run = 984.4
Bike = 1258.2
Swim = 76.6
My devotion on January 1 was perfect... "Turn North". in Deuteronomy 2:2-3 God said, "you have made your way around this hill country long enough; now turn north.". He was speaking to his people who had been wondering for 40 years. It was time to quit going in circle and turn north. I think we all need to turn north towards GOD. He is the only one that is going to get us through this pandemic. 💓🙏🙏
I started my 1st day of the year as I always like to start off... with a run! I met my friends at the trace and ran the Steam Whistle 12k. It was a terrible HOT and HUMID morning! 75 degrees and the dew point was 69% with Humidity at 77%.... for those of you that don't know about the dew point... well, if it's high.. it makes it HARD for us runners. Humidity can be high like this morning when I ran it was 69% ... but the dew point was 25% .. BIG difference! Just go google it. 😁
Here is our picture before we started our run. We were all smiles and happy to see each other on New Years Day!
Due to the rona and our work rules, I stayed away from groups of people. I did my social distancing. Once the race started, soon I was running alone. I felt pretty dang good and my friends were going to do more of the social run visiting so I pushed on. However, by mile 3.5, I was not feeling good at all. I felt like I was going to puke everywhere and the bathroom hit me big time. So I took a detour off the trace and hit the bathroom. I didn't know if it was the heat or the dang sinus mess I've been fighting... all I knew was I was not going to be able to run that fast the rest of the race. So I hopped back on the trace and walked hoping one of my friends would catch up soon. I figured it would be Felicia and I was right. I was so glad. I told her I was going to try to jog / walk the rest with her. We had a good visit. Her mom recently passed and it was her 1st Christmas without her so I was glad to visit with Felicia and maybe help her not be so sad. Here we are coming in to the finish finally! oh and when I got home and looked at my Zithromax pack, it said stomach issues were one of the side effects! So I guess with the humidity and the meds I had been on for a few days did not mix for fast running. 😏😒
My time was no where near my normal time, but you know what... it's not about winning or placing in your age group always... Life if about showing up. Showing up is WINNING. Showing up is GOLD as one of the awesome peloton instructors says. That's another take on 2022... let's SHOW UP for each other. 😍🙏💗
Since I did a bike ride on New Years Eve and a run on New Years Day I finished the year strong and started the year strong according to my Garmin 💗
This morning my run was different. We went from 75-80 degrees the last few days to a low last night of 28! real feel this am was 23 degrees. I had to pull out my gloves. I love my thicker gloves I got years ago from the NYC marathon.
Cold weather can't stop us.... some of us have another marathon in 4 weeks! 😀 I know several of my friends are hoping for warm weather so they can lay on the beach. I'd rather cooler weather for running 26.2 miles, but I'm ok with warmer weather as long as the dew point is LOW> 🙏🙏😀
So I challenge you as we head into 2022, let's keep our hearts focused on God and not be defeated by this pandemic. I'm looking forward to doing some races I haven't done like this Big Beach marathon in January. 💙💚💛💜💓
Happy Running!
D
