2022 was purely Georgia miles with a few in Dallas for Thankgiving week. I added some walks in my regime just to be able to go out.
In December 2021, we moved to a new home. So my run routine changed again. The route around my neighborhood was a mountain. A torture which nearly tempted me with run-retirement. So I made the expensive decision to keep my hobby alive. I decided to burn my precious gas and drive to a trailhead 3-5 miles away. Gas was expensive in the beginning of the year, in case anyone forgot. And later that's how walk was introduced into my routine. Rather than let a day get wasted, cause I missed the run-bus, I introduced walking around my mountainous neighborhood.
In the very first week of June, the mood was complete HOTlanta with missing MinneSNOWta very badly. June & July are killer in humidity. But August the rains have transformed the sidewalks. The algae coating makes it as slippery & dangerous as black ice sidewalks in Minnesota. October was pleasant till the cold blast for a week. Then it was a warm first-half of November. But December was all sleet & tropical rains along with 2 weeks of Artic blast cold wave. That brought down my Dec mileage immensely.
Runkerchief - so nice to see another runner flaunt the huge mens-handkerchief. It was that kind of June morning. I am not the only one carrying handkerchiefs to wipe the sweat & blow snot. And in summer I bought the cooling towel. That's definitely needed in South on just regular outings in summer.
For the last day of Dec, I scrambled to join my run group - but surprise ! It was hurricany weather, so stuck to treadmill walk. My GPS phone walk mode did not match with treadmill and showed 0.5 miles on watch for the 2 miles of treadmill walk.
I thought I had run less, but at 471 miles of running it was still more than last year. And add the 84 miles of walking. But my pace has dropped to 15-16 min/mile. Its a very depressing number which I attribute to increase in weight & age, and add Georgia's topography to it.
I did become a morning runner this year finally. Because morning temps are pleasant and not freezing like MN and it gets hotter later in the day. I tried a few evening runs & couldn't imagine, how I did evening-runs so many years in MN. It's too much effort after the exhausting efforts of the day.
I had one very interesting Saturday long run in last week of July. After moving to Georgia, I looked up and joined a few local Run Groups via Facebook. I ran with only Lifetime group but followed rest for local trail info. This Saturday I decided to turn up at one groups starting point at Halcyon at 6:30am. Waited awkwardly in dark for strangers to turn up with the same confidence as my MN run groups. There was another group gathering & I kept looking at them, asking telepathically if they were Wind Runners. Finally 2 dudes came asking about this group & I introduced myself. Since they were fast runner, I decided to skip this and went back for breakfast and went to my usual trail. When I was about to start, the second group from Halcyon reached here by running. Haha & chatted. Its 5.3 miles from there and took them an hour. Later I remembered they must be the Peachtree group. I started my run and ran into a few women who looked like 'She RUNS This Town' run group. After a pause I asked them and they did turn to to be. Lot of good natured Runners Yelling. So thrilling. And in my return trip I ran into my Lifetime run group buddy. So one Saturday morning run and I bumped into 4 run group runners !
My only race of the year was Alpharetta Women's Half Marathon on 23-Oct.
Races here are just not like in MN. In MN there were races across seasons. All routes were beauty areas with definitely flat-ish routes. Format were classic plain vanilla; which is very comforting. Now in Georgia I have found only one in my hometown which works for me. Then rest are quite a driving distance. And I found all really weird ones. There is Alien Half in Rosewell with Alien theme & it's at night ! There is another Marathon which is run around a 1 mile loop - its a good way to ensure the entire race is on a flat route. Plus Georgia is a mountainous state. The inclines are killer and we don't need it in a race routes. I don't know how I will find other races that work for me.
All of my yearly Run Reports are here.
Wish you all a very Happy & Prosperous New Year !
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