I gotta say that the first 3 months of 2022 have not been so great in terms of running. Actually, this quarter has not been so great in several aspects of my life. I guess this is fine because April (for me) has always marked the beginning of Spring, which is all about rebirth and all of those other warm fuzzy sentiments.
Main targets for the first quarter
Rather than beating myself up about not hitting these goals, I guess that I will shimmy these on over to the 2nd quarter of 2022. It’s probably better than I move these goals over because I probably lost all the progress that I have made while training for and running Fred Lebow Half Marathon (Jan.) and Rock n Roll New Orleans Half (Feb).
Unfortunately, the month of March has been plagued with a couple of injuries that kept me from improving on my half marathon times.
Besides meeting the goals in the above picture, I have/had a couple of goals for 2022
- Run a half marathon each month.
2. Run 2022km by Dec. 31
Running a half marathon each month:
This goal is now out of the question since I could not get over my injury in time to run last weekend’s Run Love Philly Half Marathon. I’m not going to beat myself up too badly about missing this goal because there were some things that were out of my control. When I signed up for these half marathons in December (at least the Jan – Mar ones), the college course that I teach was supposed to be virtual. However, a couple of weeks before the semester began, the college changed the course from virtual to in-person. I‘m not complaining too much about this change because I prefer teaching in person. Since I had already made my travel arrangements for New Orleans, I told the department that I made these plans before the department decided to make the course in-person. I’m not sure that I could have pulled that excuse (again) for Philly’s half marathon. That said, I did request off for April’s Brooklyn Marathon. Well . . . actually, the Brooklyn Marathon is going to be a half marathon for me because there was no way that I could train for a full marathon on a bum leg.
To be perfectly honest, this upcoming half marathon will be more of a walk->run->walk->run situation. Depending on how the next couple of weeks go, I plan on doing the following: walk (1mile)->run (1mile), rinse and repeat for 13.1 miles. If I can run the 1st three miles and do my walk->run->walk cycle, then great. If not, oh well . . . feet smell.
Taking another peek at the course, I guess that I’m not missing too much by switching my registration from the full marathon to the half marathon. After Mile 13, the full marathon pretty much is an in-and-out course along Ocean Parkway, which can be a bit boring.
Running 2022km (1264mi) in 2022
To meet this goal, I have to run about 168.5km per month. Looking at my total mileage (errrr kilometrage) as of March 31, I’m a bit off of my goal.
At this point, I’m supposed to be around 505.5km so I’m about 63.5km (40mi) off of my goal. Although I’m a bit off of my target monthly mileage (errr kilometrage), I think that I can still make 2022km by Dec. 31. Now, my target monthly kilometrage is 176km (109mi), which is about 5.8km (3.6mi) a day. If I do not have any other issues with my leg (fingers and toes cross) or other random BS, I think that I can manage this new goal, especially through easy runs.
Becoming more social:
During the next quarter, I’m going to try my hardest to get reconnected to NYC running culture through my running groups. You know, until people get on my damn nerves. 😉 Right now, I’m a half-assed member of two in-person groups (Harlem Runs and Front Runners NY) and one virtual group (Black Runners Connection). HA! I was even featured in Front Runners’ Member Spotlight in February.
For some, it might be a huge honor, but in this case, I was a bit conflicted.
-It’s clear that they wanted someone of African descent to be featured because of Black History Month. Also, I’m probably one of 5-7 (I’m being generous with these numbers) active (well . . . near active) African descent/Black members of the group.
-For the spotlight, you are asked to answer a few questions. I will admit that I felt a certain way with this question: Black History Month – Is there anything you want to see from the running industry as it pertains to Black runners? If the club is trying to show that they improving diversity, shouldn’t all members be asked this (or a similar question)? While probably an oversight, the person who sent me a list of the questions didn’t bother to keep the font consistent with the other questions.
Actually, let me stop there because this is supposed to be a positive (or a near positive) update. 😉
Questions of the day:
-Did you meet your monthly/quarterly fitness goals if you had any?
-What’s on the horizon for your fitness goals as we enter Spring? Yes, I know that Spring technically began on March 20.
-How vital (or useful) is social media to you in connecting with your running or fitness community?
Social Media Plug:
Run There, Drink That 
OMFG!! Sorry, but that font. Crikey! That’s a tone-deaf person that I’d be calling out as an ally if I could (I get into trouble for being an ally, mind you. I got my friend with an eating disorder put on lockdown for complaining about her hospital Christmas dinner once.) That’s a shame, as I know our lovely local LGBTQ running group is allied to the FrontRunners organisation and I hope they wouldn’t be that crappy. Anyway, that kilometrege plan is big, look after yourself and listen to your body. I am MUCH happier not chasing that this year like I was last year till I blew up. But strength and power to you and I’ll enjoy witnessing your endeavours!
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I get that he was trying to be inclusive so I did not fault him . . . too much. One of the issues (maybe issues is too strong of a word) that I have with the LGBTQ+ community is many folks in the community do not understand the complexities of being a member of multiple marginalized groups. I probably screw/misinterpret some of these complexities myself. For instance, my experience as a Black cis-gay man is different than a White (or White-passing) cis-gay man. I guess one of the issues in this group is there are not many Black members. While it’s great that they want to voice/opinion of the group’s few Black members, there is a fine line between inclusivity and tokenism.
What happened with your friend (if you do not mind sharing)? Compaining about a meal got her placed on lockdown? Maybe I’m missing something.
Regarding 2022km in 2022, I’m going to try to do the best I can. For this goal, I’m gonna incorporate walking as part of my easy runs.
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But intersectionality isn’t really a hard thing to grasp, is it: there are lots of resources explaining it. I don’t know, I just feel it’s my duty to read around stuff and understand it. Hm.
What happened with my friend was that she and others in her eating disorders unit in the psych hospital one Christmas Day had agency nurses accept delivery of full Christmas dinners from the hospital kitchen instead of their usual fare, then stand over them trying to force them to eat them. She told me about it in a messenger discussion, I tried to contact the hospital and ended up doing so on social media, at which point she was locked in her room with her laptop and phone removed for telling people in the outside world about this. I was mortified when I found out (we laugh about it now, fortunately).
The walk-run thing sounds sensible. I know you’ll look after yourself.
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Nope, it’s not difficult to understand (for the most part). In this age with instant information, folks just do not want to do the work (unless it’s in a 15 sec IG story or TikTok reel) to understand.
I hope that your friend is doing better these days. One of my pet peeves is folks staring at me while I eat.
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I was struggling to remember where I’d been finding out about the particular issues around being Black and gay in the UK and suddenly remembered (and shouted out in the middle of the night!) it was on a really good TV programme called We Are Black and British (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0014t9r) where one of the participants is a gay man. Fascinating and horrific and easily digestible even for those who are of the “learn it on TikTok” generation. My friend hasn’t been in hospital for a while now but severe enduring eating disorders don’t go away so she’ll always be fragile. She’s been really sick recently as she got Covid and I’m asking all things of the universe to protect her since I’m not traditionally religious. She has an appointment with her respiratory guy at the hospital today so putting my faith in him. Anyway, sorry, thank you for asking.
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I think you’re doing pretty well for your goals for the year all things considered. Props for just even setting full year goals; I don’t think I could.
That’s a bummer you were featured but couldn’t fully enjoy it thinking it was just because they wanted to highlight you for Black history month. Sometimes I wonder if we shouldn’t be beyond having to designate specific months and should just be teaching history as it should be taught (ex stop acting like Native Americans lived during the colonial era and don’t really exist anymore)? Wishful thinking I’m sure… I’ve learned so much more about REAL history since I got out of school and am very happy when I hear of some friends who are parents who are making the extra effort to teach kids the truth about America’s shameful past. Ok rant over…
I race at the April Foolish 10 hour endurance challenge tomorrow! A goal is 30 miles, B goal is 40 and C goal is anything beyond that. I’m pretty sure I have more clothes packed for it than I took for our Harper’s Ferry trip the other weekend!
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