I know blogging is not popular at all anymore, most of the bloggers that I followed 12 years ago are no longer doing it. The only 2 that are regularly blogging now (at least that I see) are Mary Fran at Belief in Myself and Stained Glass Butterfly and I didn't follow Stained Glass Butterfly 12 years ago. Even the blog that got me into blogging, Katie at Runs for Cookies, has cut way, way back on her blogging, she's still there, but once upon a time she was blogging daily and she's down to a few times a year now.
Last week I had a couple of slow days at work so I went looking for any motivational running blogs. I found one, Darlene at My First 5k and More..., through searching through Mary Fran's blog readers (I don't think Darlene follows Mary Fran, but she was a blog that one of Mary Fran's readers follows) does that make sense?? She's been running and blogging since 2007 or so and is older. I have really struggled the last couple years with getting out and running and liked that she was older when she started running, so I scrolled and searched my way to the beginning of her blog (she does not have a handy calendar that you can click on to find a specific date). Through her I found another old blog Laura at 50by25, who apparently did 50 marathons (I think one in each state??) before she was 25. She also started blogging around 2007 and was living in New York at the time.
I noticed that most of the links to other bloggers in their old posts lead to "Page Not Found" error messages. I know blogging has mostly gone away, I know that TikTok, instagram, and whatever other social media platforms have taken over, but I do find the blogs much more interesting to read than watching a 30 second or less video. Must be another sign of old age. 😆
So I went down the rabbit hole with both of them. It is interesting to read blogs from 15 or more years ago. I was not running in 2007, I started in 2013, but when I did start, the blogs I was reading were really inspirational for me. Whenever I found a new one, I'd go back to the beginning and start from there, it's a lot like binge watching a show on Netflix or one of the other streaming platforms, which is my preferred way of watching shows as well. I do follow a couple runners on Instagram, immrsspacecadet, who I found through an article in Runner's World, and Shut Up and Run, who used to blog, but quit a few years ago.
Anyway, I noticed as I was reading Darlene and Laura's old posts that I was feeling that old desire to run again. I also noticed that I had more desire to blog than I've had in awhile.
So back to my title question, is running still popular? Maybe the question should be, has running ever been popular? Maybe I just submersed myself in the running world 12 years ago and thought everyone was running (well, no one I knew personally, but everyone else).
Maybe I'm not following the right people on my social media (my preferred is Instagram for "influencers," I like to keep Facebook for family and friends, although I do follow a lot of wine pages there). I can almost guarantee that if I hadn't been sucked in the blogging world in 2013, I probably would not have continued to run. Oh, I've always liked it, but maybe I'm just one of those people that needs something inspirational to keep me going, especially when I'm in a funk like I have been for the last couple years.
Anyway, after not running hardly at all the last 3 weeks, I did 2 runs this weekend. They weren't long, 2 miles and 3 miles, but it's the most I've done in 4 weeks. I am also feeling it today. My back is sore and I just noticed when I sat down that my legs are also a little on the sore side. It's sad that 5 miles over 2 days has me sore (definitely not marathon or even half marathon sore, just a little sore), I used to easily run 5 miles at a time and not feel anything afterwards. Anyway, I should not think about what "I used to do" because I am not there anymore and focus on what I can do now.
 |
| 2 miles on Saturday |
 |
| 3 miles on Sunday |
.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment