This past year frankly was not great. It definitely had some high points but it averaged into the crappy realm. I rate 2019 as a D bordering on a C-.
Health Check
I don’t recall setting any specific health goals last year which is great in that I didn’t fail to achieve anything. My weight this morning was 250lbs which is just over 1.5lbs more than my same post last year. Even with the minor change year over year my weight and size in general has been a constant frustration this past year. I just can’t seem to do what I need to.
As with previous years I did run a handful of races with sub-optimal results.
Space Race 3K at the Kennedy Space Center. I really enjoy this race as it is a great first race of a new year and I get to run through rockets. They don't make it easy to find the results or even the past events' sites but I did find it. I ran the short race in 26:10.9. I thought the race was longer as it was in previous years and I had paced myself to keep going but when I got to the finish line I was confused.
Shark Bite 5K at New Smyrna Beach. I joined this race event because it has an amazingly large medal. It was an early morning drive up to NSB and it was cold and windy. I went up with Will who I ran a couple of obstacle course races with previously. We got up to the event rather early and got our packets and due to the cold we returned to my car to rest up prior to the race. Closer to race time we returned to the starting line at which point I realized that I had left my bib number back at my car. I jogged back to my car and back to the beginning of the race with only a few minutes to spare before the gun fired. Anyway, the race was nice and I even saw some dolphins playing in the inter-coastal during my jog. My time ended up being 42:33. I wrote about the previous two races in this post.
Real Florida 5k occurred at the Wekiwa Springs State Park. It's always a nice jog through the forest except for the portions where I have to run through sugar sand. I ran in 46:22 minutes based on my time but the gun time had me at 47:00 (I'm usually in the back of the starting pack). I wrote about this race in this post.
Gr8ToDon8 5k was my first race was April. It's a nice road race in order to raise money and awareness of organ donation. I ran a bit slower than I expected at 48:06.2.
Mad Titan 5k was my second race in April. The entrance was inspired by my friends Will and Erin. This was Erin's first 5k and we hung together throughout the entire cross country race. It was a rather chilly morning but the race course actually required a bit more exertion than a typical 5k so we warmed up quickly. After we finished and Will got his picture taken for placing we went and ate mini donuts.
Riverside Dash 5k in Sanford was my final race in April and happened the day following the Mad Titan race. It was a nice morning and I had a very nice run but ran out of gas. I finished in 43:17.8. I wrote about my April races in this post.
The Rising 5k in Oviedo was my last race of the year and happened at the end of October. It was a nice morning and I had an okay run. I finished in 44:08.6. I always forget that the return leg of this run faces into the sun and I kick myself every time run this race.
Travel and other diversions
My first big trip of the year was to China in late May going into June. It was an amazing trip that I took with Erin, Tony, and Mary. It was a totally spontaneous tip as Tony had seen a promotional price for flights many months ahead of time and we all said "Let's do this!" We flew to Beijing and were driven up to a resort/theme park a ways out from the capitol. We were extremely happy to be there as the trip had been extremely long. We then had multiple days of walking on various sections of the Great Wall. We also spent a couple of days in Beijing and saw some of the well known sites there as well as some of the lesser known ones. Once I break my procrastination I will write up a detailed set of blog posts with pictures about the adventure. The flight home wasn't as long as the trip to China and we left and arrived on the same day which was pretty amazing.
My second international trip was down to Belize in June. I went on this adventure with the Orlando Reef Divers to scuba dive and stay on the Belize Aggressor live-aboard. The biggest highlight was The Great Blue Hole and I wrote about this trip in this post.
I also had a couple of weekend dive trips with the Orlando Reef Divers. The first was in the middle of July to Boynton Beach, FL where we dove off of the Loggerhead. The second was to Pompano, FL where we dove with Scuba Tyme III.I also stayed for a few weeks up in the mountains in NC and visited Ft. Myers a few times as is usual.
Work and Miscellany
So 2019 was my 20th year with IBM and I wrote about it in this post. It also marked the conclusion of my time on the Lowe's project where I had resided for 7 1/2 years. I had a lot of time in between projects that I attempted to fill up with educational activities. I then was on a project in Newark, NJ that was a special kind of hell that still haunts me from time to time. I'm currently, although not for much longer, on a project based in Milwaukee, WI which has been frustrating and interesting at the same time. It did stink as it is very cold in WI in the winter.
On a more lighthearted topic,I started playing a new game based in the Harry Potter Universe called Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. It's made by the same people that created my other addiction game, Ingress, but I was able to get Erin to play it with very little nudging. Actually, I believe she installed it before I did. She has then recruited a handful of people into the game. It is definitely fun and has taken up some of my time from other games that I play.
