Boldly running where I've never gone before

And most non-runners would agree but those of us besotted enough to understand the pleasure of beating one’s feet on the ground in any weather would tell him to stop trying to find the logic in it and just go with the flow.  This is impossible for a Vulcan so he would simply stare at us with the same perplexed bemusement that other people do.

Since my last post recapping 2015, I have not run any long distances races nor ticked off new states in my 50-state quest and have only just begun training for my next-half marathon.  But in the interest of being a “good” blogger, I figured I might as well report what has been done now that my attention is turning to the best of what 2016 will bring.

Once again, I’ve signed up with the Moon Joggers for another year and have already run a virtual 10k in January, The Warbird Run, which got me this awesome Klingon warbird medal while raising money for a children’s charity.  I did that 6.2 miles at home on my treadmill.

On a semi-sunny January 24 with just a bit of snow on the ground and temps in the upper 20’s, I lined up with 102 other brave (though some would say foolhardy) souls for the Park Forest Running and Pancake Club’s Midwinter Cruise 5k.  This is an annual winter event in which people don their best Caribbean cruise attire and run in the snow for pancakes, bling and a chance to find their smile (which may have been lost in a snow drift somewhere).  I often sign up for January races in hopes the weather will be kind enough for me to actually run them.  In many cases this is not true, but thanks to our milder winter I did manage to drag myself from the warmth of my home to do this one.  And ya know what?  I loved every minute of it.

Next came the annual birthday trip, this time for my husband’s February birthday, to San Diego where I ran again with the Super Run series and this year did the 10k.  The day was beautiful, sunny and warm.  The scenery was a true joy to behold and I had a wonderful time.  However, other than this photo of my shirt, bib and medal, there is no proof that I did the race because you don’t get an official time if you run slower than a 13:00 mile.  My time was 13:23 per mile according to both Garmin and the PEAR Sports heart monitor and app that I was using, so I was 23 seconds per mile too slow to matter.  This illustrates another way that The Establishment of large-corporation races devalues us slow runners.  They stop clocking people at a certain point and your seemingly-paltry (but possibly monumentous to you) effort just doesn’t count.  Oh well.  I know I was there, and now so do you.

After returning home to the chilly confines of the Chicagoland area, the next local race was two weekends ago in Manhattan, Illinois at the Irishfest Parade 5k where that town’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade is kicked off the the 5k runners barreling down the main street followed by the rest of the parade.  What fun that was!  Like the Midwinter Cruise, it is a circuit race for my running club — the Prairie State Roadrunners — and so I got to see some familiar faces that I’ve missed over the last year when I worked too much at both jobs and spent too much time injured.  It really brought a smile to my face to have practically the entire town lined up as we led the band of bagpipers, floats and emerald-clad marchers.  And there is actual proof I was there!  Not only did they report everyone’s time to Athlinks but I even showed up in one of the photos taken by my running club which photo, I may add, was posted free on Facebook and not offered to me for sale for like $25 the way the big race companies do.

Credit for race photos to Prairie State RoadRunners

So that brings pretty much up to date what I’ve been doing runningwise over the winter.  I am still pulling together an agenda for the rest of 2016 but I do have my next two destination races already planned:  a Las Vegas 5k in two weeks (while I’m there attending a conference) and then another 5k in Washington DC next month while I am visiting a friend.  Those will give me another state as well as DC off the bucket list.  I have a half tentatively scheduled for Salt Lake City in June and then a full marathon (yes, Ahab is going after that white whale again) in the fall most likely in New Mexico.  I am hoping for a multi-state 5k outing in September but it depends on my husband’s vacation allowance at his job because we would both like him to come along.  My overall goal though is to be smart enough to remain uninjured even as the plantar fasciitis continues to nag from time to time.  And of course, as Spock would also say, to “Live Long and Prosper.”

Next report:  Purple Striders 5k from Sin City.