It has been 601 days since my last race, the Prairie Fire Half Marathon in October 2017.  This race was special. It was my fastest half-marathon time ever and I had Canadian relatives in town who were cheering me on.  I intended to take a couple of months off of races to begin my 2018 goals:

1. Run a 50 mile race.
2. Run a half marathon at the Pike’s Peak Ascent.

Neither one of those happened because of the car accident and today, they are out of reach.  Do I hope to do them some day?  I’m not only going to do both, but I am going to place respectively in my division.  It will take a long time to get there.  Other goals?  I could write down dozens, like eventually qualifying for Boston, which was penciled in as a 2019 or 2020 goal.  I intend to qualify for Boston before turning 50, so I have 6 years to play with that.  Today, I need to focus on short term goals.

I’ve received clearance from doctors to finally participate in races.  I’ll be competing in the Wichita RiverRun 2019 this coming Saturday.  RiverRun is a 10k race that is one of many events at the Wichita River Festival.  It’s the biggest 10k in the area and one of my favorite local races.

It will be my slowest 10k ever.  I am okay with that.  I sat last year out.  This city’s metro area has close to a half a million people and I’ll be one of a few thousand who runs the 6.2 miles.

I won’t be sitting this year.  And my next race will be better than this one.

I look forward to seeing old friends from the running community and familiar spectators.

Best part about all this?  The RiverRun happens to fall on my birthday this year.

Beast Birthday!  Bam!