How Do You Measure, Measure a Year?

When you have an eclectic Spotify account sometimes songs come up that you may have forgotten you added to the playlist. Enter “Seasons of Love” from RENT. Great song. Also if there’s ever a trivia question about how many minutes there are in a year… I will nail it. For those of you who don’t know the song (really?), I’ve placed a link right below. Enjoy!

RENT SONG!!                                  

After listening to the song, it’s probably fairly obvious where the title of this post came from. So how do you measure, measure a year? I can reassure you my counting technique definitely does not include minutes (except maybe the countdown minutes to the end of a work day), midnights (trying to be asleep by then if at all possible!), or cups of coffee (that’s right, still don’t drink that stuff unless it’s winter time and the caramel brulee latte is available at Starbucks). Now, inches and miles and laughter and strife? Hmm.... Now this sounds more like it, actually sounds kind of like a race to me! But who would measure a year in races? Why me of course!

I noticed that instead of breaking down a year into months, seasons, or semesters I tend to break down a year by races. Let’s look at this year for example. In January I realized that I needed to start training for my Asheville halfie that was in early March.(Note: Don’t sign up for a race in March if you live anywhere cold and despise running in the cold.) Looking ahead at my next race (and to see how long my break in training would be) I realized I wouldn’t have a break because I’d be jumping into training for the Indy Mini in May. Surprisingly I was okay with this because once you start running those long distances it’s really not fun to lose the distance game.

No need to look for me in this picture. I am NOT running with the Kenyans!

Alright so if you’re keeping score at home that’s two races and we’re not even halfway through the year. Well since we’re doing every other month, why not sign up for a Spartan race in July! This shorter distance gave me time off after those halfies and and reason to start worrying about my lack of ability to lug myself over walls, across monkey bars and up ropes (really Lauren? Why do you do this? Oh yes the strife part!). Not only was the Spartan race a good way to stay motivated but it runs right into the beginning of marathon training! That’s right. No better way to finish the year then with a full marathon in Savannah in November!

   

Note: When you run 2 of these in 2 different countries you are officially a "world rocker" (read bonus medal!!)

So you can see my year is truly measured in races, whether that be the training for the race or the actual race itself. But these races are definitely translated into inches and miles, and laughter and strife! Especially when running with friends (um… for the laughter part)! So far the first two races of the year have been great (Lots of laughter, only minimal strife). I can’t wait to see where the next 3 take me! Oh yeah that’s right I said 3. I might be sneaking in a 3rd halfie in Dublin in August. (Yeah I try to play it cool when I drop that fact but really I want to add !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!).

So how do you measure a year?