Racing back through 2014, or: "Until we dream of life and life becomes a dream..."

So imagine that, 2014 is winding down into its final week. We stand at the cusp of a new year and all I can think to myself is, “Wasn’t it Memorial Day, like, three seconds ago?? Memorial Day 2012, even???”

Time is like this bottomless pit we just keep falling into, except someone’s having fun with our Perception Sensors and keeps changing terminal velocity so as we keep falling faster and faster time seems to speed up with it. Until we go splat. Chilling thought, isn’t it? Or perhaps, not really. As long as you’re falling anyhow, you might as well spread your wings and pretend to fly while you feel all weightless and free.

Which I suppose is one of the reasons why I run. And man oh man, was 2014 a big-time race year for me. To put it in perspective, during the calendar year 2012 (as opposed to, what, the Rolodex year 2012? What a silly descriptor…) I ran six half-marathons. In 2013, I also ran six. This year? I completed ten half marathons… the vast majority of them in the months of January through March (5 races) and October through November (4).

The rest of the year wasn’t too shabby either. The race highlight of my year was the 2014 Space Coast Marathon, an event towards which I dedicated pretty much May through November for training. Lots and lots of training. Endless hours sweating it out on the treadmill, the track, and the streets of South Florida. Only to come to the conclusion that the training ended up being more fulfilling to me than the marathon itself. And I loved that race. I would have loved it more if it were 10 degrees cooler, but hey we can’t have everything. Where would we put it?

Anyway, it’s been a swelltastic running year and I thought I’d share with you some of the highlights from it in the form of this video I threw together. Not to get too pseudo-philosophical or, even worse, trite and horrifically dull, but this entire running/racing experience has been nothing but an ongoing journey for me. And like any good quest, the journey brought me into contact and connection with so many hordes of wonderful, strange, and beautiful people, who have joined me on my quest and allowed me to accompany them on theirs.

So this video is a tribute to all of them, and to all of you reading these words. Thank you. Yes, YOU. The one who’s looking at this sentence right now. You! The one with the face! Rock on, fellow traveler.

So here’s the video, set to the inimitable tones of Stevie Wonder’s “As”… my favorite song off my favorite album Songs In The Key Of Life.

And here was my full race schedule for 2014, with links to their respective reviews (if available):

5Ks

Walt Disney World 5K (1/9/2014)
Dash From The Past 5K (3/22/2014)
The Color Run (5/10/2014)
Disneyland Family Fun Run (8/29/2014)
Avengers Super Heroes 5K (11/15/2014)
Ft. Lauderdale Jingle Jog (12/21/2014)

5 thoughts on “Racing back through 2014, or: “Until we dream of life and life becomes a dream…””

You are just all kinds of running awesomeness! Here’s hoping to running into you – literally – on some of these mean south FL streets! 🙂

Right back atcha Kim 🙂 Keep staying awesome!

Are you doing WDW next month?

Negative Ghost Rider. Doc’s orders – no running for at least 3 months. Thank you very much chondromalacia patella. Spending all my newfound time counting the ceiling tiles and trying to keep from going off the ledge. At least I get a Mickey fix the week after marathon weekend, or else I’ll have to be committed.

Sorry to hear about your malady 🙁 Hope that you can get quickly back on the mend. Thank God for muscle memory… anyway, feel better and enjoy your fix when you get it. I also know where you can get some buttkickin’ designer straightjackets…