I Run These Towns

A few weeks ago it started raining really hard while I was walking the dog. We were about three blocks from home and ran pretty hard the rest of the way. I finished and was exhausted. Running three blocks made me exhausted. It's not okay. I had clawed my way back into good running shape last year after my shoulder surgery, and since November I have been struggling again. I miss running. Running does not miss me. A lot of people probably love running races in the summer, but my favorite 5k races all come in November and December: the Silver Bells 5k (the day after our holiday parade always on the Saturday before Thanksgiving), the Turkey Trot (on Thanksgiving) and the Scrooge Scramble (the first weekend in December). I was registered for all three last fall ready to capitalize on my relatively quick time in September's Capital City River Run 5k. In that race I felt amazing and surprisingly won my age group with a time of 27:48 (a long way from my PR but pretty solid for me the l

I love habits. Habits are my jam. With just a little research one can find tons of books and articles about the importance of habits for success. In February of 2020 my habits were down to a science. I woke up early to work out. I dropped my son off at daycare by 7:30 each morning and was at city hall by 7:45. I worked a full day of meetings before picking my son up (most days) by 5:30 pm. On Mondays I had city council meetings nearly every week. My habits were set in stone because my schedule was so busy. If anything shifted out of place my entire day could be shifted. That was not my jam. By mid-March 2020, when the world shut down, all my habits went out the door. In an instant habits no longer existed. There was no child care. There were no office hours. We were all home together for an extended period for the first time as a family. My husband and I had work to do, but it felt like summer camp. I would go for walks with the dog and my son between meetings. We would ride bikes, and