A few days before my 27th birthday, I texted my sister.
“Thoughts about signing up for a half marathon in Yellowstone?”
This seemed like a remarkably good idea at the time. I was full of pre-birthday idealism. I’d never been to Yellowstone. I’d never run 13.1 miles. Both of those things seemed cool. How bad could it be?
But then she said yes.
This has been five years in the making. On January 1, 2012, I participated in my first ever 5k race. I was actually pretty fast back then. Since then, I’ve finished twenty-eight races including a few that required me to crawl through the mud. Some of them had puppies. Those were the best ones.
Puppies!
In that same time, I’ve been in a constant battle between my love of running and my love of ice cream. My race times have gotten slower and my lbs on the scale have gotten higher. I’ve started many years with the determination to reverse these trends. This year, my sister is getting her revenge for making her run a half marathon.
“New Years Resolution/goal for next year: run 1,000 miles.”
1,000 Miles. Let that sink in.
We’ve both (foolishly) agree to try and complete 1,000 miles of running in 2017. That comes out to be a bit more than 19 miles a week. Training for a half marathon makes this a completely possible – and quite advisable – goal. It doesn’t make it any less scary. And I am terrified.
In my efforts to write more this year, I’m dedicating a portion of my blog to my “fitness journey.” There are plenty of blogs in the world that talk about fitness and running and people’s pursuit of these things. I can’t imagine I’ll be telling you anything you won’t already know. I certainly won’t be telling you anything that isn’t expertly covered by people who actually know what they’re talking about. But my hope is to track my progress while showing how a normal, regular, every-day, out-of-shape person goes about running 1,000 miles in a year. Wish me luck.
Read more.
The United States is going through an identity crisis. Or perhaps more accurately, it’s going through an increasingly intense cultural shouting match. The narrative of “us vs. them” has seeped into everyday life; both my news and my newsfeed are consumed by divisiveness. Outrage is ubiquitous. Political decisions are followed by opinion pieces are followed by protests are followed by Facebook posts. We have reached a point where nearly everyone is angry or afraid or ashamed. No one feels represented. No one feels protected. Even if you personally don’t feel endangered, this cultural antagonism threatens something vital in us all. This feeling isn’t specific to one group – both liberals and conservatives see their values under attack.
wordsmash.blog 