Hi, this is Debbie Boyles, coach at Mojo for running with episode number 148, plans for the next episodes, the serious problem of locked public tracks, and a heartfelt promise from me.

It is great to be back recording another episode after such a long time.

This episode commemorates several changes as regards to this podcast, but much more important

is that it commemorates a return to running pretty much as normal after the year of

the pandemic. A year we'll never forget as much as we'd like to. I want to mention a few things

about that. Give it a bit of perspective and then I'll give you a heads up about the topics I plan

to cover on the next few episodes, particularly an upcoming episode about the crisis of many

runners, maybe most runners, no longer having a public track to use to train or for speed work.

I'll go over a dozen upcoming topics. That way, you can send me any specific questions that

relate to that topic, or you can suggest

new topics.

We'll get to that in just a couple of minutes.

Now, the pandemic isn't completely behind us, but compared to a year ago, the situation here

in Tampa is pretty much back to normal, And I suspect that mirrors most of the nation.

We've even had a few in-person races that went off without a hitch. What I'm seeing is that people

are turning up at our group runs from week to week. Sometimes people I haven't seen in many months,

sometimes as many as 18 months. It's wonderful, like reuniting with people who've been stationed overseas,

for example. Think about it. Even when a kid is away at college, they usually come home every few

months. But in this case, for many, it's been well over a year since we were together, shoulder to

shoulder, sharing a run or hanging out afterwards over breakfast planning

our next adventure many people look so took several months off from running altogether or they just

weren't comfortable running with other people those people are returning now every few days

...