My Little Mermaid Running Dreams Came True

Hello Friends,

Two big things happened this week. Truth be told, it has been a pretty big week week for me so far and it is only Wednesday night.

Most recently, my newest, news is that I quit Facebook and Instagram. I have been thinking about doing this for a very long time and finally on Tuesday I read an article about Facebook’s new name Meta and its interests in the metaverse and I decided that it was time to cut bait on Facebook. In the past few weeks, I have been processing what the Facebook whistleblower, Frances Haugen presented to the senate and really digesting what she said regarding the addictive and irresponsible nature of Facebook’s online products. Facebook, Instagram, and others truly are drugs for your brain and they are designed to be addictive.

Every since I saw the Matrix trilogy, I knew that I did not want to live in Matrix-type world. I have no interest in participating in the metaverse. It is hard though. Much of life these days is wrapped up in social media. Many business and clubs use Facebook as their webpage.

I just want to put this out there for anyone who is interested in breaking up with Facebook but is still interested in having a platform for sharing life news, family pictures, and stories: you can start a blog for free. Once you start the blog, you can email your friends and family the link or even advertise it on Facebook before you quit.

Setting up a blog does take time, but it is fairly easy to start a blog. Come up with a snappy name and start sharing. You can fix it up and add flourishes as you go.

I started out with a free blogging platform when I originally began this blog in 2016.

Here is a list of free blogging platforms out there:

• WordPress.com (this is where I started)
• Wix
• Blogger.com (I have started and worked on multiple blogger blogs during my time working in public libraries)
• Weebly

There are others too, if you google “Free Blogging Websites” you can research what best fits your needs.

Enough about Facebook for today. . .

My other big news is that I ran in my second half marathon this past Sunday!!!

I ran the same race that I ran two years ago. It is called the The Delaware & Lehigh Heritage Half Marathon Run/ Walk. It is 13.1 miles and I ran the entire thing. Well, that’s not actually completely true. There is a very steep, kind-of-long hill near the beginning of the race that almost everybody walks up very quickly because it is better to save your energy for running after the hill. After that hill, I ran the entire thing!

I wanted to stop during several points and walk but I was following a couple who I did not know but seemed to be running at a pace that I was comfortable running. Instead of walking, I just kept running because they were running and I thought that if I stopped to walk, I might never start running again, so I just kept going. Somewhere around 12 miles, the woman who was in the couple, told the man that she wanted to walk, so they started walking but I kept running because we were so close to finishing.

In retrospect, I think I should have just encouraged them to keep running because they unknowingly kept me running. Also while I was about a half mile from the finish line, a younger woman who passed me said to me, “Just keep going, we have already made it so far. You are doing great.” What this woman said to me really helped me to keep going.

I felt praise and encouragement like this throughout the day from others runners, volunteers handing out drinks, spectators and other people’s loved one’s who were holding signs, and the staff who work for the trail and sponsored the race.

The race mostly follows the D&L Trail (Delaware and Lehigh trail) a rail-trail that follows that Lehigh River. The scenery was gorgeous and the event is very well managed. Occasionally, I have attended a race that was not so well organized. This race is exceptionally well-organized. The race has a maximum of 1,000 spots and most of the spots were taken on the day of the race.

The volunteers and staff who help run the race are awesome and very helpful. I felt so much love from the other runners and everyone who was working to put on a great race. I truly felt like we were all one being on Sunday morning.

The weather was colder than it was the last time I ran it in November of 2019. The outfit I planned to wear and wrote about formerly on this blog had to be supplemented with warmer clothing. I added a green, long sleeved shirt and grey fleece vest to keep myself toasty on the run. I also wore a knit hat and gloves. At the start of the race, 8 am, on Sunday morning, the temperature was only in the high 20’s. By the time I finished running at 10:36 am, the temperature was 47 degrees, according to Weather.com, still not too warm, but I felt plenty toasty at that point.

After I finished the race, I felt incredibly proud of myself. I finished this race, my second half marathon, about 23 minutes faster than I finished in 2019. I left it all out there on the trail. To me, it felt like I ran the best possible race I could have run. I think I also caught the running bug too. When I signed up to do this run for the first time, in March of 2019, I thought that this would be a special thing that I could do because I was about to turn 40. I thought it would be a thing that I would do one time and be done with running long distances after that.

I think fate was intervening, because I had not actually planned on running this year’s half marathon until I received an email saying that I was already signed up for 2021’s race.

You see, in early 2020, I impulsively signed up to run 2020’s race without thinking it through very much. Then 2020’s race was canceled due to Covid. The D&L Trail, who hosts the race as a fundraiser, instead held a fundraising trail challenge that my registration fee could be transferred to. I opted out of participating in that activity for a number of reasons and I couldn’t remember the particulars as to whether I received a refund for my registration fee or not.

However, on the 4th of July weekend, I was on a camping trip and I got an email saying that 2021’s half marathon was still happening and they had already transferred my registration to 2021 and I was signed up for this year’s race. So I thought to myself, I guess I am doing this. I told my husband and he looked at my and said, “I guess you are doing this” and kept supporting me throughout all the training and race planning.

And I am so glad that I did it. I got everything I needed from my training and the race itself.

I am so thankful for the support I received from my husband, sons, family and friends. Thank you all.

I look forward to many years of running and racing in the future.

If you are looking for a first half marathon or you are looking for a half marathon that is beautiful and well-managed, this is the one for you.

Much love,

Katie