It’s been a minute

This pandemic has really gotten me down. I mean . . . I cannot complain too much because I am fortunate to have my health and my job, but it has been rough not returning to our old normal. At this point, we should change BC from “Before Christ” to “Before COVID”.

Virtual Challenges

I guess that I’m moving along in my two virtual challenges that are both about 600 miles. A couple of weeks ago, I just was not feeling running at all and took a week off. Since last week’s weather was kind of rainy and crappy, I probably would have not have run much anyway.

One NY Cares Challenge

Looking at my map, it looks like I’m a few miles outside of Rochester, NY for this challenge. When I signed up for this challenge, the plan was to run about 6 miles a day to complete the 600 mi challenge by Christmas. With taking a week off, that distance has increased to 6.75 miles a day. Hopefully, some of my long weekend runs will make up some of that slack.

NYC Runs Subway System Challenge II

Since I’m making some progress with the One NY Cares Challenge, I guess that I’m making progress with my second challenge. It looks like I gotta start picking it up for this challenge, which is 691 miles in 14 weeks (about 7 miles a day).

To help out with my running boredom, it’s time to start exploring other areas to run in NYC, because I’m becoming bored with running on Randall’s Island and in Central Park. Perhaps, I’ll take the train (one of my virtual challenges is a subway challenge) to the Bronx/Westchester border and run back to Harlem for this weekend’s long run. Since I’m teach on Saturdays and Sundays (12 – 3 pm), it will be hard to venture too far away from my home base in Harlem for “exotic” weekend long runs.

Although I’m not super fast anymore, I really do miss in-person races. I know that I’m being a bit of a brat, because I do realize that in-person races are not possible . . . for the most part. Aside from these two virtual challenges, I’m just not that interested in running any more virtual challenges or races. Of course, I’m kind of flaky when it comes to running so this opinion may change once I get a bit more zest for life.

Word on the street is that NYRR is slowly bringing back in-person racing. As a matter of fact, I accidentally ran with an NYRR-sponsored race this weekend on Randall’s Island. Maybe my thirst for in-person races will soon be quenched. Since I have a bunch of NYRR races under my belt; perhaps, I’ll “run” down memory lane and write about my races from back in the day. Perhaps, doing this will help me get over the lack of in-person races.

Speaking of NYRR, it looks like I’ve racked up another NYC Marathon guaranteed entry. I say another one because I was supposed to use last year’s deferral for NYC 2020, and the 9+1 guaranteed entry program for 2021.

We’ll see if I’m selected for NYC 2021, 2022, or 2023.

My unofficial NYC Marathon 2020

Although I have been down in the dumps about not running in-person races, I am looking forward to running the last half of NYC Marathon’s route on Nov. 1.

Random Questions:

Since Halloween is just around the corner, is anyone running any Halloween-themed virtual (or in-person) races?