あけましておめでとう！SCORUM Crowd: My Apologies, A Request, and a Much Overdue Update.

Happy New Year, everyone.

Hey everyone. Sadly upon logging in today I see I've been gone over 17 days here. That's not cool, especially considering this blog is to be my main focus as far blogging about my running experience goes.

Without going in to too much personal detail, please allow me to tell what has happened. In a nutshell: the markets crashed, I had to get a new job and line up a second job, sell my computer to pay bills, and most importantly, I had to keep training and running throughout, which is the whole reason this blog exists, anyway. The new regular job is still picking up momentum, and it's been a fucking stressful and bare bones two months, to say the least.

In other words, I have to pay bills and make sure my finances are in order for my family, and have found myself in a hard place, where it has been a bit tougher to put up a regular, quality blog. As such, I will be requesting any assistance you may be able to provide in support of this blog, and my journey to Shizuoka (paying bills here and travel expenses) for the marathon in February. I'll be putting details at the end of this post.

Running/Training Update:

I finished my 18-mile "Emperor's Day River Run" back on the 23rd of December. It was a great experience, aside from my phone battery dying (no music!) and garnering a little foot injury for a couple of days!

The path was a nearly unbroken designated walking/running path along the longest river in Japan, the Shinanogawa. Check out the video below and you can get a short peep--and more detailed explanation--as to what the experience was like. I really love Niigata, Japan, where I live, and this kind of thing is just one of the plethora of reasons why.

As for the rest of the training experience, I set a new personal best 3-mile average pace the other day, clocking in at 7'15" per mile. Was super pumped about this! As you can see in the picture at the top of this post, the weather has turned to winter style as well, so that contributes quite a bit to training becoming more interesting ;)

So, with all that said, and myself feeling a bit more caught up now, Happy New Year! If you enjoy the content on this blog, I humbly request your assistance in keeping it going strong, and helping me get down to Shizuoka in February, for the big day.

Thanking you in advance, and hoping I can return the favor soon.

Support My Journey to the Shizuoka Marathon via Bitcoin:

If you do decide to donate any amount, please let me know in the comments so I can give you a shout out in my next video or blog post.

If you are new to this blog, please check out the index below to become a bit more familiar and follow me on this journey. I am really hoping the running community here on SCORUM will grow actively in this new year, as I am sure we could all use some community, advice, and tips as we run our own paths!