In years past, my wallet cried after seeing how many races I registered for, figuratively speaking. Obviously, as everyone knows, 2020 changed the landscape of life significantly, including running goals and running in general.

I started last year with some big goals written on my bathroom mirror, namely a sub 3:45 marathon at Atlanta so I could get a Chicago time qualifier. Five years have passed since I last ran a marathon that fast. A month or so into the year, I backed off of that goal, and decided to just run with Mom and try to pace her to a sub 4. I even picked a back up marathon, a flatter, destination race marathon. Yeah. Neither of those goals happened. We had a great weekend in Atlanta but the hills ultimately ruled the day.

Even though the world had started to shut down because of the pandemic, I held out hope that I would still get to run the Ottawa Marathon but my heart was not into serious training. I purchased a plane ticket but only ran half heartedly, setting aside marathon training as soon as I received word that the race had gone virtual, especially when the race gave options to complete the distance in segments.

I had no motivation to train for a big goal race as they disappeared from the calendar. Conversely, my motivation and gratefulness for running increased to heights I have never felt before. I read about people in other, harder hit areas, limited to their homes and backyards, unable to run on the streets. I did not want that to happen but I knew that it could if people refused to take things seriously. Runs in late March and April filled me with incredible gratefulness.

Until May, I still had no goal to work towards. That when I discovered GVRAT< the Great Virtual Race Across Tennessee. Although I later became disillusioned with the race director’s choice to participate in systemic racism with his social media curation efforts, this virtual race, a challenge really, motivated me in ways that “traditional” virtual races