2021 was pretty good compared to 2020. My job continues to be stable. The kids finished their 20-21 year of school in blended virtual/in-person learning. We trained. We returned to RACING! In March, Joe and I went with the kids, his parents, and our niece to Virginia Beach for the half marathon and it was brilliant! We got a condo on the ocean where, despite the cold weather, I could sit in the living room and see the ocean and boardwalk outside. On that boardwalk, we watched (and joined) thousands of other runners in an open-course concept race. The start/finish area was set up all day long. You could cross those timing mats any time you wanted. There was support on the course but not like a normal race. The roads were not closed, so some of the course was on crowded (and surprisingly uneven) sidewalks. I had to stop at a crossing and wait for the light to change at mile 12, costing me my sub-2:15 time. I finished in 2:15:16 - which was another big PR, shaving about five minutes off my time from 2019's Mistletoe half in Winston-Salem.
And then it was spring. Ever since getting my ass kicked in North Park at the triathlon, I had planned on getting a road bike. I started shopping around and found that the pandemic has made buying the type of bike I was looking for (in the $1000-1500 range) impossible. I "settled" for a much better bike than I would have otherwise and brought home a Giant Defy along with a Wahoo Kickr stationary trainer. I was getting serious about this triathlon thing... I started training with TriDot and a new coach. I completed the local sprint (New Brighton Memorial Triathlon) in a reasonable time - placing second in my age group. Unsure if there were more than two people, frankly.
We completed our first Eagle Up Ultra!! I say "first" because this is undeniably something we will do again and again and ...again! We had an amazing time taking turns with our group of mostly strangers-turned-team-mates on that hot summer Saturday. I ran three 5-mile legs and, in total, the team ran 100 miles. We finished around midnight and collapsed into our tents feeling so excited and contented. We will be back next year for sure.
...then my hernia got huge. Like big and painful and impossible to ignore anymore. Knowing that I hate long-running in the heat of the summer, and also facing a change in my insurance plan at work that would make the surgery cost much more out of pocket after July 1st, I moved forward with surgery. On June 29th, I had a "robot-assisted laparoscopic umbilical hernia repair". I know this lengthy phrase because they ask you several times before surgery to tell them what surgery you are having. Saying "a hernia repair" didn't cut it. I had to say the whole thing. The recovery was about as long as the name of the procedure. Those first few days were abject misery. All I could do was sit in the corner of our sectional watching TV with an ice pack on my belly. I took more opiates than I'd ever had before and they turned me really stupid for about a week. I was still stupid for days after stopping them, actually. This surgery was way worse than my C-section or thyroid surgery. I am SO GLAD that's over with! I started training first in the pool and then on the bike trainer about a month after surgery. I was cleared to run at six weeks but I really couldn't put any kind of volume or intensity on my training for weeks beyond that. Honestly, it's now October and I'm just now feeling like I'm "back to as normal as I'm going to get". I say that because I still do get twinges and shooting pains sometimes, but they are mild.
I started training again officially in August and, soon after, did the MMM (that's Mighty Moraine Man) sprint triathlon up at Moraine State Park. No pictures because I went by myself that day. In hindsight, that was a mistake. I really needed race support. I also got no photos. I didn't get an AG (age group) placement but that's OK. It wasn't a bad race but it wasn't my best and I still wasn't 100% back to full training yet.
Because of my prolonged absence from karate, I missed a round of belt testing. Joe leveled up to blue and Cami came to join me at green. Braden finally got that little black stripe on his white belt, but he really has lost interest. We now go one or two nights a week and try to find someone to hang out with Braden so that he no longer disrupts class.
This blog post, really, is to catch us up to today's race report for the Columbus Half Marathon :) Unfortunately, before I can type that out, I've got to get dressed and make the 3.5 hour drive back home.
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