2021 Wrap Up

Not much of substance to report for 2021, other than consistently getting out the door an average of four days per week for an hour or so.  Total mileage was 1,412 with 23,901 feet of elevation gain.  Not stats to brag about, but I think I am intrinsically satisfied.  No races run this year due to the continued COVID-19 pandemic and no ultra distances covered (no excuses to report there).  I simply haven't had the extra mental energies to commit to such endeavors.

Lifetime totals:

2002: 651
2003: 2,213
2004: 2,506
2005: 2,667
2006: 3,124
2007: 2,759
2008: 2,812
2009: 3,353
2010: 3,056
2011: 4,523
2012: 2,718
2013: 2,180
2014: 2,375
2015: 2,205
2016: 2,101
2017: 2,507
2018: 2,436
2019: 2,210

2020: 1,394

2021: 1,412

Total: 49,202 Miles

Am I falling out of love with running and races?  I think it is not so.  A recent IRunFar article by Sabrina Little hit home:

"Ordo amoris is order of loves. This is a concept introduced by Augustine. The idea is that there is a priority proper to the things we love. For Augustine, a good life consists of loving what we ought, to the extent that we ought, in the ways that we ought.

He describes how we should not “have a greater love for what should be loved less, or an equal love for things that should be loved less or more, or a lesser or greater love for things that should be loved equally.”

Augustine also states that to get the priority of our loves correct is nothing short of “a brief and true definition of virtue.” Good actions follow from well-ordered loves."

My priorities are simply different from what they once were.  My "order of loves" has changes.  Ten years ago, running occupied my thoughts daily and I ruminated over what races to run, details of preparation, and training minutiae.  These days I find myself focused more on being a good husband, father, son, and also focusing on my career -- all the while trying to squeeze in the much needed running and soul balancing that it provides me.

Life moves in circles.  It won't be like this forever.  Or maybe it will?  Change is the only constant.  Nonetheless, I will keep putting one foot in front of the other, striving for the next mile, the next sunrise, the next sunset, the next joyful expression that only running can deliver -- in the appropriate order of loves. 

I will end this annual blog entry with a quote from one of my favorites books and authors, Norman Maclean in A River Runs Through It:

"Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it.  The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time.  On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops.  Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.  

I am haunted by waters."