Year-End Running and Walking Report

For December 2022 I ran each day of the month, amassing a good amount of mileage and keeping myself generally in shape.  I did run a public race, the 5K Depot Parkrun on the 10th, although due to online registration misinformation I missed running the Tyler's Hope 15K I had intended to run on the same day...sometimes I think that with the charity events, the organizers get so caught up with their admittedly worthwhile causes that they forget about providing reasonable conditions and pertinent information for the participants.  I had run this race twice in the past and, should circumstances permit, will seek it out next year.  As has been the case recently, my walking mileage comes naturally over the course of my day, especially with my walk-intensive job.  Unfortunately, my eating habits of late have created a creeping weight gain over the course of 2022 that interferes with my running...a few small habit-change corrections should solve that issue.  As for 2023, in January the Florida Track Club is holding a marathon/half-marathon/10K race on the 15th and the Newnan's Lake 15K will take place on the 29th...both on Sundays.  The Five Points half-marathon will not happen in '23, but they are still holding the 5K race in February...not that I intend to be in it.  I am a member of the Florida Track Club, and they offer a 10-mile run in Micanopy on February 11th...I ran it earlier this year, enjoying the course.  Being 66 and not getting any younger, I know that my finishing times in different distances aren't going to improve very much...most likely it's going to be a gradual slowing instead.  That's all right...one of the things I look for when scanning posted results of races that I just ran is to see who the oldest runners are...with this I'm usually among the "top" finishers.  Here are the races I ran in 2022:

DATE   RACE-NAME                          DISTANCE   FINISHING-TIME

2/12     Depot Parkrun                                5K                    31:28

2/20     Five Points Half-Marathon       Half-Marathon   2:33:51

3/19     Micanopy Ten-Mile                    10 Miles           1:48:24

3/26     Depot Parkrun                                5K                    30:45

4/9       Headwaters                                     5K                    29:28

10/15   Tom Walker Preview                     10K                1:04:55

10/22   Run the Good Race                       10K                1:03:20

11/06   Tom Walker Memorial              Half-Marathon   3:05:29

11/12   Depot Parkrun                                5K                    31:38

12/10   Depot Parkrun                                5K                    31:46

Note the six-month gap in the middle of 2022 with races...yet during that period I trained an awful lot.  I don't train because I want to run in public races, I run in public races because I train.  Still, it would be nice to run in a few more next year, although I'm disappointed that there won't be a Five Points Half-Marathon, an event that had become a strong Gainesville tradition since 2006, with only the Covid pandemic interrupting it in 2021, and one that I had run in six times starting in 2010...