obligatory year end 2021-by-the-numbers-and-other-stuff note: maladaptive daydreams

in years gone past, this would have been a bunch of 'cutting room' thoughts and ideas left over from race reports that never made it to publication, as well as other musings from heckling friends while working aid stations.  i had a few volly gigs but i've only run one race this year, so let's just say i'm still kinda short on material for this year.  nevertheless, here's a bunch of stream-of-consciousness ideas that never found relevance in my other post for 2021.  

despite this being a running blog, none of these chicks are in running gear.  

Race Report: On Letting Go

How're ya now?  Not 'sbad?

It's been a while since I last toed the line at a race - exactly 52 weeks and 6 days before the race of this report, I ran a 3k relay race mid-pandemic, but that was a massive rolling start and our team all started together.  I had volunteered for ultras and smaller road races since then, but the concept of running long distances for long periods of time was once again foreign to me.  

Fortunately, I had to get my shit together for the 2022 WSER race lottery, and needed a qualifier between November 2019 and November 2021 to keep my consecutive ticket count going.  There were effectively no WSER qualifiers during 2020 in Alberta and we had a non essential travel ban effectively through to mid summer 2021, so despite spending an entire summer volunteering for local events and gravel riding instead of getting long training runs in, I committed to getting off my bike at the end of August and racing a 100k closer to the end of October to give me the most time to prep as possible.  It was between Quicksilver in San Jose and Leona Divide in LA, both races that normally occurred in the spring, and I figured the latter would be saved for another year when I could swing by Disneyland on my way home.  (Not a joke.)