Running Into Joy

Happy Tuesday, friends. Running a little late on the post this week because we're transitioning back to working from the office, so I'm back to a morning commute.  As you know, last week I ran the Sports Bra Squad 5K I’ve been training for since April.  The Badass Lady Gang is rolling right into the best your best 5-mile challenge. I was too late to register officially for this one, because commitments mid-August are hard for me as someone who works in higher ed.  Still, I plan to build strength and race my 5 miler twice along with everyone to see if I can beat my best time. On top of that, we’ve got the “Running from My Problems” 7 miler in September, which is possibly my favorite name for any race, ever (you can still sign up for that one here ). This new distance should fit very nicely into training for (drumroll please) my virtual half marathon. After a week of reflection between the cancellation announcement and the email to switch our registrations, I made the diffi...

Hello, my friends. Many of you know that in 2019, I had to defer my entry in the Flying Pig Half Marathon as I worked through some mystery symptoms and found my way to a diagnosis for my chronic illness. When I made that choice, a vague fear of not making it to the starting line in 2020 lingered. Would I get injured again? Would my symptoms worsen to the point that training became impossible?  Never in any of my anxiety's wildest predictions for my 2020 race did I imagine a pandemic would see the race deferred not just for me, but for all of us. The running community is full of posts asking how to keep up the motivation, how to move forward, when your race has been cancelled or pushed back. It's beginning to look like the rest of 2020 might be a Year without Races.  I have mourned the lost opportunities with my running friends, but my relationship to this twice-deferred starting line is a bit different.  In truth, I was relieved to get that email.  ...

Happy Tuesday, friends! Today, I am writing about one of the things that regularly consumes chunks of my life, 10-days at a time: Racery events with my online running communities. I suspect I've mentioned the Potterhead Running Club (formerly Hogwarts Running Club) here before, but it's worth mentioning again. This community, living primarily on Facebook with a healthy dose of Charity Miles and IRL meetups, is one of the places I go to find a sense of belonging. It's also one of the ways I stay motivated to be active. Virtual races like the ones hosted by PHRC often get a bit of a head tilt when I first mention them. You sign up on line, run or walk the distance yourself, and receive a medal in the mail. It's a different sort of togetherness than the community of a real life event, but one that nevertheless can motivate you to earn your race bling. In PHRC, these medals also earn house points towards the annual House Cup competition (which my beloved Hufflepuf...