by Lorraine Kennimouth Williams

As 2016 draws to an end, I will have logged close to 1500 miles. 

In the field of running, 2016 has been good to me. Not easy, but good. It was a whole lot better than 2015 and not quite as good as 2014 – I’ll take it and I’ll embrace it! 

I suffered with extremely painful calf muscles at the beginning of 2016 which to some degree, stymied my training. Several trips to the doctor’s office; two MRI’s; 2 Ultrasounds; several X-rays and a trip to the vascular doctor turned up nothing, nada, zero, zilch and I was left with painful runs. I hobbled through it however and managed to train and run the Boston Marathon in April 2016. For marathoners, Boston is the diamond of all races and to run it was indeed a joy and a privilege. After running Boston, my calf issues seemed to subside enough to get a good season of training in for my second marathon of 2016 – Detroit! Detroit was a great race and a FANTASTIC experience for many different reasons – my time, although not a PR, was also very good.

As I type this piece, 2017 is less than 48 hours away and I welcome it with wide open arms and a healthy positive attitude – 2017 is going to be EPIC in every possible way!! And yes, I do have some lofty running goals; 3 marathons scheduled so far – I am currently training for the Celebration marathon, which is in Orlando on January 29th. Training is going really well and my only hope is that the weather cooperates –The weather at this time of year in Florida is very unpredictable and could go either way – let’s hope it’s COLD!!

Liverpool England is next, scheduled for 27 May. This will be my third time running my home city – I LOVE it! I love the familiarity and the sense of ownership I have for such a great city – I am even more excited about running it in 2017 since my “running wife” Monika Oberer will be running it with me. “Running wife” is a term of endearment we use for each other since we spend every living moment training together! She is the face I see most mornings at 4:50am, sometimes even earlier – yikes!! Nevertheless, having a dear friend visiting your hometown with you and running such a special race is very exciting.

Third race of the year is “The Wine Glass” marathon, scheduled for October 1st and takes place in Corning, Upstate NY. This marathon also brings with it a high level of excitement! First of all, the name gives it away; but more than that, four special friends have committed to run this race for a very special reason. It is close in proximity to an animal sanctuary where we plan to visit after the marathon and stay a couple of nights. This sanctuary (along with others on the west coast) is run by an amazing individual named Gene Baur. He and his lovely wife are animal rights activists and have dedicated their lives to save and rehabilitate abused and/or orphaned animals of any type and size. They live a vegan lifestyle, and their story is overall amazing (Check him out on YouTube). 

So …. There you have it! 2017 we’re coming for ya! I know there will be other races peppered throughout the year, but so far, these are the Big Three. Our goal by the way is … to run each one of them in sub-four hours. Stay tuned, more to come. Happy New Year!!