{"id":39345,"date":"2021-12-31T00:15:57","date_gmt":"2021-12-31T05:15:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.runkevinrun.com\/?p=39345"},"modified":"2021-12-28T17:16:09","modified_gmt":"2021-12-28T22:16:09","slug":"what-kind-of-year-has-it-been","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/?p=39345","title":{"rendered":"What Kind Of Year Has It Been?"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n
\"\"<\/a>
The Bibs of 2021<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n

So\u2026 2021, huh? Not exactly how I imagined it going. The vaccine seemed like a sign of good things to come\u2026 and then we had an insurrection and a bunch of militant never-vaxxers. Surges and setbacks on the healthcare front meant we never hit the percentages we needed to break the pandemic definitively. And so we find ourselves once again facing a rising curve of hospitalizations (albeit, fingers crossed, with a lower mortality rate). Overwhelmed and exhausted is the \u201cnew normal.\u201d It\u2019s a bummer to be sure.

I did return to organized, in person racing\u2026 albeit at the time and even now looking back I wonder if that was the wrong thing for me to be doing. And yet, I carry on, registering for races, booking travel and accommodations, and masking up. Yes, I continue to wear the masks, to wash my hands, to minimize social interactions and maximize social distancing whenever possible. I get lazy sometimes, like we all do, and yet that\u2019s why we\u2019re in a trough of trouble at the moment.

Given the warning signs, the doom and gloom, and the looming political nastiness that never seems to end\u2026 almost exclusively courtesy of the right\u2026 you\u2019d think I\u2019d be woefully pessimistic about the coming year.

And yet\u2026 2022 is all about trying to find the silver lining. I\u2019m resolving, as one does in the new year, to a more positive outlook. I\u2019m going to try and look for things that raise spirits and battle back against the darkness that pervades far too much of our lives. Will it last? Probably as long as any other New Years Resolution\u2026 but that doesn\u2019t make it any less worthy of the effort.

So here\u2019s my small, personal goal. I can\u2019t change the world, but maybe I can change my little piece of it here and there. I\u2019ve often been blunt about the struggles in running 26.2 miles, trying to keep it real and not sugar coat the experience mainly to reassure folks who assay their own race\/contest, that it\u2019s not easy. We all struggle and sometimes we fall down. But it\u2019s in that struggle, in overcoming the frustrations and setbacks, that we find the joy. I haven\u2019t always been good about covering the post-run euphoria\/triumph\u2026 indeed, I\u2019ve had more than a few folks tell me they find my blog a little depressing and dark to read. To which I always have said, \u201clife is a bit depressing and dark sometimes.\u201d

HOWEVER, life is also a bit upbeat and shiny sometimes. Hence, ergo, so, and all kinds of other introductory adverbs, I\u2019m going to try and balance the darkness with some light.

What kind of year has it been in 2021? Some terrible things\u2026 but some truly wonderful ones too. My brother got to see my Mom for the first time in 2 years. I got to see some beloved friends I hadn\u2019t seen in ages. I ran a little. We endured. We only truly lose when we give up\u2026 in 2022, I\u2019m determined to give up a little less and get back up a little more.

To the future, an undiscovered country that holds dangers\u2026 and promise.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So\u2026 2021, huh? Not exactly how I imagined it going. The vaccine seemed like a sign of good things to come\u2026 and then we had an insurrection and a bunch of militant never-vaxxers. Surges and setbacks on the healthcare front meant we never hit the percentages we needed to break the pandemic definitively. And so […]<\/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-39345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39345","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=39345"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39351,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39345\/revisions\/39351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}