I’m still running. But the whole ‘running the world’ thing took a bit of a detour after Marrakech thanks to Covid-19. We were all impacted in some way, but living on an island was a unique experience in one significant way that many others cannot appreciate – our borders closed March 2020 and did not fully reopen until the spring of 2022. Limited commercial flights began again in November/December 2021, but the restrictions and quarantine rules made it onerous to leave.

So we stayed.

In that time while ‘stuck’ in Cayman, I found that I lost a lot of mojo and inspiration to run. Lockdowns (actual lockdowns where we couldn’t leave our property on certain days and only could do an hour of exercise a day during very strict hours – ie: daytime in the full Cayman sun) meant my training was severely limited – if I even wanted to do it. There was a huge feeling for me of ‘what’s the point?’

I made it back to a half marathon level of fitness for the 2020 Cayman event, and finally made the determination to get back to full marathon fitness for the 2021 event.

But lack of training, inspiration, getting older, and a degenerative disc issue in my back made it more challenging. I was slower, not recovering as quickly, and wasn’t able to put in the same level of intensity to my training. My mileage went down, but I still plodded on, realising I wasn’t quite finished with the marathon distance.

After the 2021 Cayman Marathon (where I placed 2nd in my age group with a 4:52 run! – thank you small fields!), I decided to keep going and run the Eugene Marathon since Cayman’s borders were opening and we could again travel internationally. I originally planned to run Eugene in spring 2020; this was a deferred race that I was looking forward to. It would be marathon #35, run in the birthplace of American track & field, and I felt that I could ‘retire’ from this distance after that without regrets.

I stopped running the longer distances, settling on half marathon training, and enjoying that level of effort for a while. Until I didn’t. I started missing the long runs, the feeling of accomplishment in traversing such a stupidly long distance, the community of runners who talk about running marathons all the time.

I was also inspired by the ballot of the London Marathon. Someone posted about entering, and I decided to enter, not expecting to get in. In 2023, more than 1/2 million people entered the lottery to participate in the race, so my chances were slim at best. I wasn’t expecting a positive result, and a ‘sorry but you didn’t get in’ email would make the decision to ‘stay retired’ an easy one.

When I got my lottery rejection email (at like 2 am the day they sent it out – they clearly could not reject me fast enough!), I was really sad that I wasn’t selected. So I started looking at other possible marathons to run in the spring, settling on Rome. Convincing my friend Sarah to join me in a reprisal of our “European Marathon Running Adventures” was extremely easy.

So I returned to long miles to see how my body could handle it, and adjustments in weekly mileage and intensity had to change. Expectations were altered for what I could do and still enjoy the process. It wasn’t as easy as it used to be, but I could still do it.

With 17 March 2024 circled on the calendar, I decided to throw in the the 2023 Cayman Marathon, my hometown run, for an ‘accountability run’. (I won’t lie, knowing I could again place in my age group helped encourage me to do this tortuous looped course again!) I convinced a friend to run it with me, and he in turn convinced me to run the Bermuda Marathon – and full Triangle Challenge – in January 2024.

Somehow one more marathon became three more marathons, and you can see where this is going.

In addition to Cayman, Bermuda, and Rome, I also decided to run the Bergen Marathon in Norway as part of a trip to visit my niece on her study abroad semester in Spain. I mean, why not? And bless Sarah, she again joined me for the weekend as I ran another 42.195 km in a new country.

With 39 marathons, I cannot stop – that is not a nice, neat, even number to stop at. I have a plan in mind, and I look forward to sharing that with you. But for now, just know I’m back, and I’m excited for some new marathon adventures! Thank you for joining me as I continue to run the world!