My October 2023 Running and Walking Report

In October '23 I ran a total of 306 recorded miles...I don't keep track of the walking mileage although this may change in the future.  I also ran on every day of the month, with my general state of fitness seeming reasonably good.  As far as public races (or "runs", as one event likes to call them), I did three: the Florida Track Club's Tom Walker Preview 10K along the Hawthorne Trail on the 14th and two Depot Parkrun 5Ks, on the 21st and 28th, all Gainesville events taking place on Saturday morning: you can read about them by scrolling back to the specified date on this blog. I missed racing on the weekend of the 7th since Melissa and I had a higher mission: relaxing on the beach!  I have been hitting my local gym (Gainesville Health and Fitness, if you must know) after work usually once or twice a week, and always used their treadmills.  They have a feature you can choose while running called Virtual Active.  It presents continuous videos, each one about five minutes long, showing virtual runs in various scenic parts of the world: it's helped me a lot with my training there! I also run in my house and in my grassy backyard...not too much neighborhood road running these days.  In November they are holding two races I'm interested in: on Sunday the 12th will be another addition of the Tom Walker Memorial Half-Marathon on that Hawthorne Trail, originating from Boulware Springs Park in the SE part of town.  Then, on Thanksgiving Day the 23rd Lloyd Clarke Sports is hosting a 5K/10K Turkey Trot race being held at Critter Creek Farm Sanctuary north of Gainesville off County Road 231.  Of course, the Saturday morning Depot Parkruns will continue...I just attained one of their milestones of 25 finishes: going for 50 now! I also began this month what I hope to be a new tradition, running a little bit further after races are completed. Oh, there is also a strange event called the Cupcake Run held at a section of the Hawthorne Trail on the 19th (10K, half-marathon and full marathon offered), originating from Hawthorne near their high school.  But that's a longshot dark horse, as far as my own participation is concerned...seems they can't properly post their race results online...