Off to a slow start...

I feel remiss that I haven’t written a blog post for all of January so far, and now it is nearly the end of the month. January has been a rough month for me with the running. Just after the holidays I came down with strep throat. That was bummer enough, but three days in to the antibiotics, feeling a bit better, I decided with only 2 days of December remaining, I should attempt to finish the last 12 miles I needed to make it a 100 mile month. Stupid move. I made it to the gym on December 30th and ran a rough 6 miler on the treadmill. The next day I felt worse than I had on day one of strep. Ugh. One step forward, three steps back. After that, I decided I better take it easy, rest, hydrate and just try to get healthy. As luck would have it, the next day (New Year’s Eve), I came down with pink eye in both eyes! Quarantined, I was, and feeling like an absolute mess. Needless to say, I have rested for most of the month. Coming in to my latest race this past weekend I only had a mere 13.5 miles under my belt for the month. Talk about a pre-race taper! (More on the latest race in the next blog post.)

So the really fun thing about January 2016 is that I volunteered to display my first 25 half marathon states finisher medals at our local library. I signed up for it over a year ago, setting the goal that I’d have to be at 25 completed states. Also, I chose January thinking that it is a popular time for folks to set fitness goals for themselves, and if someone viewed my display and found it a motivating factor, well alright. 

Last weekend we had some close friends of ours visit us for a few days, and they wanted to see my medals. So we drove to the library for a peek. Along with the medals, I included my ongoing half marathon scrapbook and copies of all the state postcards I’ve made so far to correspond with each medal. My library friend, Erika, put the display together for me, and I thought it looked great! It is very colorful with all the various medals, ribbons and postcards. A nice lift for the grey doldrums of winter. 

I tried to snap a few photos of the display, but because of the size of the case they are in and the tight location near book stacks, I couldn’t get a super great shot. These photos at least give a general idea of it. 

So although I haven’t been at my best running-wise this month, it has been rewarding looking back on the accomplishments I’ve made so far. I’m so glad I had the chance to share them with others, too.