I Already Scrapped My Reading Resolution and Run Across America

Before we begin with the real stuff that I want to tell you about, I feel I need to give you an update on my 2022 reading resolution.

The big news is that I already quit reading A Winter’s Tale by Mark Helprin.

Cue the sound effects.

Whomp, whomp.

To remind you: A Winter’s Tale was the book that I have been waiting years to read and I sort of had built up in my head since the movie of the book came out to theatres in February 2014 (but I never ended up watching because I heard it wasn’t very good and someone said that the book was better).

You can check out the post about my reading resolution here, but essentially it says that for 8 years I put off reading A Winter’s Tale it because it is a long book and I didn’t want still have pages to read in the spring, because who wants to read about winter in the spring (am I right?).

I just want to point out that I actually read my reading goal of 12.5 pages a day, well, on days when remembered 😉 . Then I got about 200 pages into A Winter’s Tale and realized that it wasn’t that good of a book and I didn’t want to keep reading it anymore. So I quit and I feel fine with that.

For now, I have decided to finally read Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood. Truthfully, I read it before. I remember liking it the first time that I read it, in winter of 2001. (Which is crazy that 2001 was 21 years ago can I say?). I read it for enjoyment during my second-to-last semester of college. Since then, I have forgotten everything that happens in the book and Netflix made a mini-series of the book a few years ago. I never got around to seeing the series so maybe I will see it after I finish the book for the second time.

This is the part where I was going to tell you all about my running resolutions for 2022 but I got too wordy, so I am just going to tell you about one of them

My First Running Resolution Is That I Am Going to Continue Using an Awesome App that I Can’t Wait to Tell You About Called Run Across America . . .

Run Across America is awesome, can I just say? I also want to let you know that this post is not sponsored in anyway or form. I do not receive any money or goods for writing about it. I have been using it for a year and I have come to love it. It is truly part of my day most days. I am merely a raving fan.

Last November (2021), I signed up for a one year-long, app-based movement encouragement program called Run Across America. At the point where I signed up, I had actually been doing it for almost all of 2021, so this is not like it is a new commitment or anything. However, before I signed up for an entire year, I had been making decisions about whether I would participate in Run Across America on a season-by-season basis and I had signed up for all the seasons individually in 2021.

However, I consider this a resolution because by signing up for a whole year, I was sort of making a bigger commitment to it (both with my activity level and financially) than I had done previously, where I made up my mind every season about whether I would do it or not.

The way I got involved with Run Across America is that about one year ago, I saw an ad on Instagram for a virtual running program that gave a portion of the signup fee to Feeding America, a hunger relief organization, while also giving participants great swag, if they chose to receive it. At the time, I was looking for something like this. We had quit our YMCA membership because the hours did not fit our family’s needs and I needed something to keep myself motivated and occupied during the long winter. I am so glad that I did it because it gave me the running community that I did not even know that I needed. It also gave me a goal to focus on.

Mr. Katie was so supportive when I told him that I wanted to sign up last year. I told him about it and all he said was, “Do it”. While I originally signed up to support my running habit, I have since found that many of the participants work towards their distance goals doing other forms of activity like cycling, rowing, walking, and even skiing. Every season (which usually lasts about 2.5 months on their calendar) I set a distance goal (usually 250 km, though participants can choose any goal that they want). Participants can also invite friends and join teams.

Mr. Katie has since joined me on Run Across America and we have a team together now, where we also have a team distance goal of 500km per season. I am so glad that he has joined me because I can see how excited he is about it now. It gives us something new to talk about. Sometimes I almost think that he is more into it than I am. We can get kind of competitive about who closer distance-wise to their running goal.

I am very much enjoying Run Across America. Every season there is a new T-shirt or other swag item that participants can choose from which is included in the registration fee. A portion of the registration fee also goes to Feeding America. For me, the biggest asset of belonging to Run Across America is the feeling of belonging to a group of like-minded individuals who care about movement and doing something good for the world. I also get a kick of tracking my progress on the Run Across America app, which is nicely designed to make you feel like you are on a quest. The graphics are good and participants post pictures of themselves when they are done their workouts. It has a little bit of social media feel to it (which is good for me because I quit Facebook and like the fix that looking at the other participants faces gives me).

If you decide that this might be something that you could be interested in too, I would be glad to talk to you about it. If you are looking for a team to join on Run Across America, here is my link.

Any who, I have more to say later about races I am planning on participating in in 2022. I will write more later.

How are you all doing? Do you have the winter madness?

Love,

Katie

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