2022 Year in Review
Low Quantity, Low Quality (Part deux)
“My doctor told me that jogging could add years to my life. I think he was right. I feel ten years older already.” Milton Berle
“The unexamined life is not worth living.” Socrates
It's now January in the year of our Lord 2023 and another year has gone as quickly as it ushered in.
I became disillusioned, outraged, and angry with our country and citizenry in 2021 and 2022 with the widening breaches of political divisions, degradation of society, social causes, chaos, and anarchy. Watching the nation regress as our egocentric purported leaders continue tearing down what we had built prior to 2020 is very disturbing and disappointing.
Whatever happened to the adage, “agree to disagree?” It seems the country is living in an echo chamber. EVERYTHING seems to be shamefully polarizing. If not, someone will find a means make it that way – demagoguery, misogyny, censorship, mocking – just because you don’t agree with their narrative. Unquestionably, dwelling on these issues isn’t particularly healthy so I have to find ways to disassociate from them. Do I have any expectations 2023 will be a better year? I hope so, but if we continue to march along the same path, it’s only a fool’s errand to think that way. I digress.
I’ve kept up with my “year in review” write-ups for the last few years. However, for 2022 I have reservations in calling this write-up an actual “review.” With life in today’s world becoming more and more complex and subverted, I may have to refer to this write-up as a lesson on self-reflection instead.
The first three months of 2022 consisted of limited running, to say the least. I averaged a pathetic eight days out of each month running no more than five miles (and that was a stretch). During the mid-spring season, I needed a goal – to run Two Cities half marathon in November. I steadily increased my monthly mileage needed to complete a 13.1-mile run. However, soon after Two Cities, I somehow completely abandoned running as if I turned off the running spigot. Perhaps I suffered from the dreaded running burnout. Maybe it was the disappointing and dispiriting results of the mid-term election. Whatever one may call this hiatus, I completely tuned out and lost my focus, enthusiasm, and mojo.
I sat down to analyze my situation and asked the following questions: Was it burnout? Was it the election? Was it the lack of any amiable goal? Did I just need a break to refresh myself?
Cool off the burnout and put the election behind me. I don’t consider burnout as a sign of weakness, but rather a method my body is signaling me to slow down. I sensed it. I felt exhausted most of the time. My muscles weren’t recovering fast enough even after a long rest period. I lacked any motivation to run. “I’ll go out for a run tomorrow,” I told myself time and time again. I was stressed and filled with negative thoughts and emotions from all the discontentment happening around me.
Following the election and how the current administration continues to unfasten America piece by piece, I tried to keep up with things. If things weren’t going well, I felt like I was simply treading water, trying to keep my head above the surface, going through life without thinking, moving from one thing to the next without making time to evaluate whether things are actually going well. I found myself doing the same repetitive things, even if those things weren’t producing any meaningful results. It wasn’t that I was no longer interested in running, I just needed to take a step back and make some needed adjustments to fall in love with running again.
The late Dr. George Sheehan penned several tomes about how running gave him the appetite he needed to live life with meaning and purpose. When it came to running, he quipped, “The first half hour is for my body. The last half hour, for my soul.” I’ve heeded that advice during my runs as it gave me the strength and focus I needed to make it through the day. However, ever since my 50-state quest concluded, running lacked its former luster. I realized running and I needed a coffee break to reacquaint ourselves once again.
It's time for some refreshments. Over the past year or so, I’ve had time to evaluate my priorities as well as time to reflect on my relationship with running. Life is too short to do the things that made me miserable. I’ve been patient long enough. It’s time to make better use of my idle time and get back out on the roads.
I’m a firm believer that running can often lead to a new beginning in life. And as I undertake my new beginning in 2023, I hope to find that mental and spiritual energy I once had in my younger days but lost through nothing more than living life and its recent disappointments.
After more than two decades, I am grateful that I can still enjoy running, but I don’t always give running the credit it deserves and what it has brought to my life. Hitting the streets with a casual run/walk allows me to decompress, ponder my thoughts, and put my mind in a better place. I am grateful for my professional career, health, the places I’ve been, remaining injury free, being able to run, doing hard things and knowing I can accomplish anything. Running and my cross-training activities have kept me relatively stable and well-balanced, fortunate to live a healthy life and being fully capable. Taking a break from running is just an inconsequential inconvenience in the grand scheme of things because things could always be worse.
Begin training with a realistic goal in mind. Now that my 50-state adventure is over, it’s time to get back on track. Perhaps I need another realistic goal to pursue – to run more half marathons and conceivably complete another marathon. Might I suggest to myself Missoula, MT or my all-time favorite, Hatfield-McCoy. Setting a goal means my training has a focus and a great way to stay motivated. I enjoy the sense of achievement as I progress toward a target.
I would like nothing more than to run one hundred marathons, but I’ve come to accept the realization that my marathon running days are essentially behind me. I still have the prerogative to change my mind, however. I value the great memories of my 71 marathon experiences and races, but finishing a marathon is a tough row to hoe as one descends the backside of the proverbial hill. I’m no longer chasing that next PR. And after compelling my body to endure the physical trauma of marathoning during my 50-state expedition, the thought of running 26.2 miles isn’t as enticing as it once was. In the meantime, I shall direct my attention to the more popular half marathon distance – an excellent endurance challenge for runners of all abilities, but without the post-race agony common after 26.2 miles.
Aside from running, I found myself traveling to the central coast on several occasions throughout 2022 for weekend getaways, chiefly to escape the valley’s summer heat. It’s a godsend to breathe clean air, enjoy the cool Pacific draughts, riding bikes and running the beach strand.
In September, I trekked northward to attend my high school reunion. Reminiscing with former classmates brought me back to both simple and trying times. It didn’t come as a surprise, but after all these years I was only able to recognize a handful of my classmates. Many times, I had to glance at their name tags to clear the cob webs from my memory bank. Most importantly, it was nice meeting up with contemporaries with whom I grew up with throughout elementary, junior high and senior high school. From my perspective, I was taken back to see how much everyone aged. I would bet I looked just as old from their perspective, also.
My one and only running achievement in 2022 was the new and improved Two Cities Marathon and Half in November. The new course came with a renewed attitude.
Two Cities Half Marathon, Clovis, CA, 2:25:02
Since Two Cities’ existence, I’ve run the full course three times, the Fresno Half once and the Clovis Half five times (I preferred this course over the other one). However, in 2021, race organizers redesigned a new course offering runners “a scenic and truly flat course,” even though the original courses were truly flat and involved matching scenery. Instead of starting and ending at Fresno’s Woodward Park, the race now starts and finishes three miles to the east at Clovis Community College.
Over the past several years, I’ve had the pleasure of being a 2:10 pace leader. It was a comfortable pace – something I’ve succeeded at many times over. I was offered a 2:30 pacing slot this year; however, I opted out. It was a tough decision, but I wanted to run the race for me. The facets of my training outweighed the pressures and responsibilities of leading a runner to a specific time. Perhaps I’ll get back into pacing as I put more races under my belt to regain my confidence, but for now, my body says I need some fine-tuning.
Now that the Two Cities races start and finish at Clovis Community College, residuals of the former Fresno and Clovis Half courses remain. The half marathon course is basically a blend of the old Clovis and Fresno courses with some added new landscapes. The full marathon course is nearly identical to the original course with some accompanying deviations through Woodward Park and Fort Washington.
My goal in this race was simple – better a 2:30 finish time. Although I didn’t sustain a consistent 11:25 pace, I still managed to cross the finish line ahead of the 2:30 group. Following the race, I know what I must do to get back into pacing form.
My 2022 yearly race stats are scant, at best. For the record…
Race Stats:
Half marathons run: 1
Two Cities Marathon and Half, Clovis, CA – 2:25:02
In-person marathons run: 0
Virtual marathons run: 0
Number of fellow runners: 1,152
All-time marathon average to date (through 71 races): 4:51:32
Standard deviation: 0:28:58
Median finish time: 4:54:09
Mileage Stats:
Total miles run in 2022: 442.3 in
95/365 days – 4.66 miles/day average
Race miles run in 2022: 13.1
Average half marathon pace: 11:04
Final thoughts
During my reunion visit, one question crossed my mind as I recognized some of my peers who excelled at sports. What did I like least about PE? It always boiled down to the feared mile. The coach would send the class out for two laps around the parking lot and a loop around the baseball field with all my peers seemingly racing against me. Looking back, I now realize I didn’t know the mechanics of how to run – it was just run. We were instructed to just “go.” For those summing up the rear, the coach would exclaim, “pick up the pace!” Mentally, I wanted to, but realistically, there was no way.
I’ve been a consistent runner since the late nineties. Since then, I’ve learned how to run. Even though I still haven’t earned the coveted blue and yellow unicorn themed medal in my collection of finisher’s medals, I’m happy and proud of what I’ve accomplished thus far, and I’m hopeful that I have many more years of running ahead of me, but even if I don’t, I love what this sport has brought into my life. I’ve analyzed my priorities and began to focus on the experience of running, instead of any target pace or distance.
A PR is something most runners strive for with each run. I’ve had my time in the sun, but now, I’ve come to accept that I am not in a place where PRs are really in my deck of cards; alternatively, I will consider my PWs a baseline to measure my development over time.
Now that I’ve had time to evaluate my priorities and take a step back to look at the whole picture, I know I will get back there one day. For 2023, I’ll be happy to maintain a consistent running routine supplemented with additional interests in cross-training, strength training and yoga. I don’t even feel the need to set major goals for 2023, other than to continue to do what I can and be happy. And if some road race pops up on my radar, I’ll look at that as a bonus. As life gradually returns to a somewhat normal state and back into a normal training regimen, only then will I consider my next goal.
As always, it’s onward and upward.
