A very, very wet NYD parkrun

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It's the 1st of January, 2022 and we find ourselves in Hervey Bay, in the rain, doing another new parkrun.

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Since beginning my parkrun journey in August 2018 I've now walked or run at 154 parkruns total at 117 different locations, including today's. My overall parkrun PB is 22:31 (at GreenWay, in Sydney, NSW) and today I ran a very wet, very reasonable time of 26:59 that included:

  • steering around countless path sized puddles
  • staring over the debris wall to watch with awe as the waves crashed against the other side
  • thanking volunteers who stood under umbrellas in the pouring rain
  • encouraging fast runners, slow runners, children and the person who did their first every parkrun today
  • running into a head wind to get home again (on this out and back course)

I started out easy since I found it hard to get motivated to warm up much in the rain prior to the briefing. But it didn't take me long to over take people - a lot of people. I focused, on the way out, on just running as easily as possible with good form, and would overtake anyone when it felt like they were blocking me from running the easy pace I wanted to go - no internal pushing required.

On the way out it was tempting to push, to see how many people - especially females - I could overtake. I focused on trying to 'stay within myself' (as my partner, Brad says) so that I could still enjoy the rain falling, the waves crashing and the wind on my face. I knew that being present with all that was way more important than if I overtook that 12 year old in front of me :P

I also wanted to make sure I had a good day for the rest of my day, as we are, after all, on a mini holiday and there's no point killing myself at parkrun just to be 1 or 2 positions higher if it means I write off the rest of the day.

I finished strong and needed a few minutes to walk around and recover properly. I was delighted by the double numbers in my token... I take repeating numbers like this as a good sign that I'm in flow.

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And then, like a curious kid, I decided I needed to run out on the famous Urangan Pier (even though Brad and others who had warmed up on there had already mentioned that it was blowing a gale out there). I went anyway. And found myself in step with Steve from the nearby Maryborough parkrun as we ran and chatted doing a halfway, out and back, on the windy but not unreasonable, stunningly beautiful pier.

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(Today, all photos by Brad aka @new.things on our 3 year anniversary. Love you, babe :) )

I just finished a 5.0km running that lasted about 0hh:26mm:59ss !
Check out some detailed info at my EXHAUST page
Join me in testing out EXHAUST!

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22 comments
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Happy Nee Year @consciouscat! Great way to start your 2022! I have been dying to go outside and run but it has been raining since the Typhoon 😅. Im planning to be more physically active this year. Is it weird to like sweating more? 😂 Just feels energizing every after exercise or workout.

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(Edited)

Happy New Year to you too @indayclara my !LUV May your 2022 be infinitely better than your 2021.

Oh man ⛈️ Isn't it funny how water can be simultaneously wonderful and awful? We want it and we don't, all at once?

Cebu and surrounds are struggling to get access to drinking water
(and that is really hard)
because too much water fell out of the sky (paired with its brother, wind)
(which was really scary + devastating)
and now you can't go for a run because it's raining too much water again
(which is really annoying + troublesome)
but you want to because you really want the water in your body to come out
(because you know it would feel good).

Water: It seems we have a range of strange relationships to it and it's so much more important than most of us ever really come to understand (until we live through something like you are).

Thanks for patiently reading my philosophical pondering !LOL

Yes, you'll feel great when you can run. Yes, it's totally normal to want to sweat and move your body. Yes, I pray that you're able to soon 🙏♥️🤗♥️❤️

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Couldn't agree more. The weather have been better now. Sun seems to be quite in the mood. 😊 So soon I'm pretty much will be out running!

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This is fabulous! Happy New year Caroline ...and Brad hehe. What a wonderfully exhilarating, and might I add,..crazy !LOLZ way to start the New Year...although I wouldn't be surprised to wake in the morning and find my hubby has gone and done the same thing locally here in England. I think I mentioned Exhaust community to @liftslikealady so I'm sure she will be interested to know how you are finding it 😁 I can relate to the headwind on the way home...we have an amazing man-made lake a few miles from our home that has a 5 km paved route around it. The lake is used for wild swimming and rowing and the track for running, cycling, family walks, or in my case, sometimes even electric skateboarding too hehe. It is so weird because when you walk down the left-hand side to the boathouse, there is NO breeze whatsoever...even if you cycle or run, you feel nothing...but start up the right-hand side of the lake and that cold headwind will bite into you like nobody's business.

I loved this bit in your post:

I focused on trying to 'stay within myself' (as my partner, Brad says) so that I could still enjoy the rain falling, the waves crashing and the wind on my face.

I think this message of mindfulness is a wonderful one to carry into the New Year and a reminder that if we remain centered within ourselves, all things remain possible even in the face of continuous onslaught from external forces, and it is possible to see the beauty in the challenges we face each day.

Happy Anniversary guys!

!PIZZA !ALIVE

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Thank you for tagging me @samsmith1971. @consciouscat I. Curious how you are liking exhaust. I have been posting almost daily in actifit, and wonder the difference in posting under exhaust vs actifit.

I think it was funny how you were tempted to run in front of the 12 year old. I raced my 11 year old son the other day on our hike, and I was handily defeated! I like the idea of "staying within yourself. "

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Well, hello @liftslikealady! I have seen you around. Nice to meet you 😃

Yeah, this idea of 'staying within yourself' I have found so useful, because it reminds me to notice when I'm overextending myself for what purpose? Because I want to beat someone I've never met before and I'll never see again? To prove I'm better than someone else?

I'm trying to remember in 2022 that I can cling to the magic of the waves and the wind and the rain, and that's a much more useful focus than trying to push my body harder than it really wants to go.

Re. your question: Since I am not using actifit I cannot compare the two, so I don't know how to answer your question that well without guessing (probs not that helpful) !LOL However, my love, Brad (@new.things) uses both, so maybe he can chime in and share his experience.

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Oh yeah! @new.things, I would love to hear your perspective.

@consciouscat I try to remember something similar when I am doing workouts and I know that it is going to be hard for me. I start to tune out everyone else and just focus on me and what I can do. I have been trying to focus on setting my own goal to to push myself and if I accomplish it, then I feel very satisfied. Sometimes it is just setting a goal in not taking so much rest between sets (with my weightlifting) or just setting different rep amounts to do to push myself a little more mentally.

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(Edited)

haha @consciouscat @liftslikealady ...why did I think you already knew each other ?...ROTFL now...oh well, my work here is done 🤣 ... Caroline meet Becca, Becca...Caroline 😂🙏💗

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I use actifit for daily step count tracking and general blogging and have started using exhaust for events and races as you can upload a GPX file from strava. You can also do a manual entry with no GPX file on exhaust like consciouscat does. It is worth having a look and seeing what works best for you. I am not really experience enough with all things hive to comment on the tokenomics of it all. Hope this helps.

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This does help. Thank you. I don't know the tokenomics either, but I will check out exhaust some more. Actifit has been really easy for tracking lately.

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!LUV ing your kind and enthusiastic reply (as usual) @samsmith1971 :)

It definitely took some willpower to rein my competitive self back in and remember what's actually important to me.

It's the same as I look at other people's new year's resolutions and parkrun goals. They're often focused on things I no longer care about - metrics that they think will make them happy, but I know through experience that they won't, or it will be so fleeting that they'll be disappointed by the lack of lasting happiness through achievement of arbitrary figures.

Electric skateboard, hey? I continue to adjust my picture of you in my head !LOL I like it!!!

Next, chatting to your lady who lifts :P Thanks for love! Happy NY gorgeous :)

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