{"id":38263,"date":"2020-12-31T08:43:50","date_gmt":"2020-12-31T13:43:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.runkevinrun.com\/?p=38263"},"modified":"2020-12-31T08:43:50","modified_gmt":"2020-12-31T13:43:50","slug":"december-31-2020-so-that-happened","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/?p=38263","title":{"rendered":"December 31, 2020 – So that happened…"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

Good riddance to 2020.<\/p>\r\n

As the odometer flips over to the new year, we must remember that doesn’t mean everything is suddenly hunky-dory. We have a long way to go and we need to be extra vigilant with our social distancing and face mask wearing and hand washing.<\/p>\r\n

I suspect it will be a long time before I travel and get to do an in person running event. Oh, sure, there are some race directors running small “boutique” events or trying to put together a plan with their local municipalities to stage a race or two. But I’m leery of joining in. I’m registered for a bunch of things in 2021, having signed up in mid-2020 when I had perhaps naively hoped for a quick fix solution and wanted to provide something to look forward to amidst the self-isolation\/quarantining. But I’m just hesitant to risk a short term fix that might lead to a longer term problem. So I’m trying to be patient… albeit I’m not great at being patient.

This year certainly didn’t go the way I had expected. \u00a0Trips to the Ukraine and Chernobyl were booked and cancelled (some tours yielded refunds, some, um… are lost to the quarantine). \u00a0The hoped for Transylvania 100 round Dracula’s Castle is a tentative deferral to 2021 or 2022. \u00a0And many events closer to home were virtualized or cancelled outright. \u00a0I don’t honestly even know where I stand on a lot of those. \u00a0The last in person event I ran in 2020 was the ill-advised Los Angeles Marathon in early March. \u00a0Looking back, I cannot believe the city went ahead with it. \u00a0I suppose we all were in blissful ignorance of just how devastating, contagious, and insidious the Coronavirus Pandemic would prove to be and sadly remain to be as I type this.<\/p>\r\n

As this is a running blog thing (I think) I’m trying to focus a bit more on that than say the general and all-consuming life-changing upheaval that I and so many others endured in 2020. \u00a0And to be honest, I made out relatively okay — I’m quarantined with my Mom and trying to ensure she limits her exposure\/risk. \u00a0We’ve gotten along pretty well with only occasional flareups of depression and “best to leave me alone…” moments. \u00a0I’m okay-is financially. \u00a0And health wise we’ve avoided illness (touch wood, knock wood, turn around three times, spit, walk backwards under a ladder, etc). \u00a0Mom actually just signed up for her vaccine doses in mid-January and mid-February and I’ll feel a lot more confident then. \u00a0We’ll still mask up and socially distance but I think Mom being vaccinatinated will give a bit more level of comfort for being out and about. \u00a0I’m not projected to get the vaccine here until 91% of the local population does — I’m not front line, not high risk per se but that doesn’t mean I’m not at risk… and we ALL can still be asymptomatic carriers. \u00a0So we will continue to wear the mask and avoid crowds… hence my hesitancy to do any in-person runs.<\/p>\r\n

So the plan of running a ton of races to then run my 500th marathon at Boston in 2021 is just a teeny, tiny footnote of what was lost to Covid-19 and 2020’s pandemic. \u00a0But that’s champagne problems of the first world order to be sure.<\/p>\r\n

To those that sacrifice to help… and to those that have lost so much… and especially to those that that have lost loved ones… I’m so sorry. \u00a0I wish there was more I could say or do… but I will continue to follow the three W’s — wash my hands, wear a mask, watch my distance. \u00a0We all need to do our part. \u00a0And if we can just rally a bit of selfish selflessness we can ALL try and get back to some semblance of normalcy in the latter half of 2021. \u00a0I know that seems like a long time… but it’s not. \u00a0Not really. Stay the course. \u00a0Run your race. \u00a0Live for tomorrow by helping today.<\/p>\r\n

I always try and post a list of races at the end of the year, a collage of race bibs and whatnot. \u00a0This is the 2020 edition because even though we all want to put this year behind us we shouldn’t forget what this year was and what it did to us all.<\/p>\r\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\r\n

I sincerely hope that amidst all the divisive rhetoric and political shenanigans and hurt and pain we can emerge with the notion that we need to work together, to live together, to be together for the mental, social, financial, physical and emotional wellbeing of us all.<\/p>\r\n

Stay safe. \u00a0Try and stay positive. \u00a0I hope to be seeing you in 2021.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Good riddance to 2020. As the odometer flips over to the new year, we must remember that doesn’t mean everything is suddenly hunky-dory. We have a long way to go and we need to be extra vigilant with our social distancing and face mask wearing and hand washing. I suspect it will be a long […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38263"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38268,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38263\/revisions\/38268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}