Looking ahead to the 2nd half of the year

A July running challenge, training together this fall + a meetup?

Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash

This time of the year, when we’re almost at the end of June, has always felt like second base to me. As if you’re on a baseball diamond, running the bases, and you’re about to touch second; you’re at the farthest point from where you started — home — but you’re also half way to getting back there again.

It’s also the time of year I take it easy when it comes to running, when I slack off a little, and sometimes days will go by when I don’t get a run in. That changes come July, when I realize that — even though it’s hot as Hades right now, especially where I live in Georgia — fall will arrive before I know it, and with it the best time of the year to run.

One of the things that has made writing this newsletter so special for me the past couple of years has been the training cycles we’ve done together, following the half marathon training plans I’ve laid out. Of course, I know it’s not always been possible for every single one of you to follow the plan to the letter — and, to be honest, I haven’t either! But they’ve given us a framework to work with, and a direction to head toward — together.

I’m excited about doing that again with you in the second half of this year, and so wanted to ask you all a few questions:

• I’d really like to schedule a meetup race for The Half Marathoner community at some point this fall — let me know, either in the comments or in reply to this email, if you’d be up for that. (I’m looking for a show of hands 👋 to see how many people would be interested. I’ll follow-up with some race suggestions later this week, depending on your feedback.)

• A goal I’ve had (but haven’t actually pursued yet) is to write profiles of members of our community, to highlight what you’re accomplishing, where you’ve come from, and where you’re headed. I wasn’t really sure how to do this until I discovered

  Oldster Magazine
  , whose questionnaires like this one I’ve been loving. I would love, love, love to feature you in something exactly like what Oldster is doing, if you’re interested in participating. Please reach out if you’d be up for it!

• Our July running challenge will start this Saturday (July 1)! If you missed our conversation about it in the Substack app, you can catch up here. We’ll follow exactly the same challenge we followed in May, and I’ll update you all every day with some words to inspire you to lace up your shoes and get out there, and accomplish the goal you set for yourself for the month. (You can see how each day unfolded for us by scrolling back to May in the app, or in Chat on the web here.)

The May challenge was so much fun to do with you all, I really felt like we were running together, even though we’re spread out around the country (and the world). July, I’m sure, will be equally as fun.

In the meantime, I also hope you’ll consider becoming a paying subscriber to The Half Marathoner if you haven’t already. You’ll get access to hundreds of scenic, fun, adventurous races all around the world. (I counted them all up just a bit ago and by my calculations, there are somewhere between 900 and 1,000 races in our archive!) And you’ll get lots, lots more — all you need to do is click/tap this button:

If I could paraphrase Fleetwood Mac for a moment, you all make running fun — knowing you’re out there, getting your miles in alongside me whether you’re hundreds of miles away or a dozen time zones away, is the coolest thing.

When you have a moment, please share your thoughts on the questions I’ve written above — it really will help me plan and shape what we do.

Thank you, and, as always, keep in touch and let me know how your running/life is going.

Your friend,

— Terrell