A Look Back

My Reflections On 2021

Yet Another Full Ellipse At 66,600 mph Around A Yellow Dwarf Star (i.e. The Sun).

The year 2021 was another interesting one in my life, like every year tends to be in its own way. Coming off the back of 2020 and the emergence of a global pandemic we as a family, a society, and me personally did not really know what to expect of the year to come. But really, does anyone ever know what the future is going to bring us?

Trail & Ultra Running

As an enthusiastic endurance athlete I was excited that the trail running world was essentially fully open again. Basically all the races were being put on again in my state of Texas. Around the United States itself it appeared that the majority of race were also being put on again, although the fallout of 2020 did put a crunch on the schedule as a delayed events, rescheduled events from 2020 all made the 2021 calendar a little more unique. Living in Texas we are lucky that everything was essentially back to the same in terms of the schedule but with the added covid protocols and mitigation measures as you may expect.

Running with TROT (Trail Racing Over Texas) I was lucky to have their full array of all 18 events to choose from over the course of the year. I participated in 11 of these, running in 9 of them (see table below) and volunteering in 2 others (San Felipe Shootout & Brazos Bend 50). Being a part of the Team TROT, I try and attend as many events as I can and just be a part of the local TROT Tribe as it is referred to. I am grateful to Rob & Rachel Goyen for inviting me to be a part of the team for a 3rd straight year. In fact I’ve been with running with TROT ever since moving to Texas as I was originally an ambassador in 2018, before being invited to join the team in 2019.

Coming off a large training mileage in 2020 and all the virtual racing I had done, I was unsure what 2021 might bring. I managed to put up a large calendar and even surprised myself with the big spring block and my fall push of races I managed to pull off to finish out the year.

Race Name	Month	Location (start)	Place	Mi	Duration	+ft gain
Running the Rose 108 km (TROT)	Jan	Tyler, TX, USA	1st overall	60.74	10:17:40	7,635
Tour De Los Tejas 600 km (TROT)	Feb	Austin, TX, USA	1st overall	393.12	142:46:02	10,860
Sasquatch Shuffle 100 km (TROT)	Mar	Grapeland, TX, USA	1st overall	59.93	10:56:36	7,612
Southwest 100 Endurance Run	Mar	Fort Davis, TX, USA	1st overall	107.55	29:26:25	18,894
The Game Backyard Ultra	Apr	Columbus, TX, USA	3rd overall	126.89	30:00:19	2,274
Cocodona 250	May	Black Canyon City, AZ, USA	8th overall	257.52	86:40:40	37,250
Habanero Hundred (TROT)	Aug	Cat Spring, TX, USA	4th overall	98.09	23:39:41	4,396
Night Moves Trail Races Marathon (TROT)	Aug	San Felipe, TX, USA	1st overall	26.20	4:26:33	442
Six-O Trail Run 50 km	Sep	Cleburne, TX, USA	4th overall	31.22	5:24:16	3,832
Alamo City Ultra 50 km (TROT)	Sep	San Antonio, TX, USA	2nd overall	31.51	5:21:12	3,755
The Barkley Fall Classic	Sep	Wartburg, TN, USA	64th place	38.00	11:30:23	13,000
Athletic Brewing NA Beer Mile (virtual)	Oct	Sugar Land, TX, USA	?	1.00	0:08:00	13
Screaming Monkey 100	Nov	Keithville, LA, USA	1st overall	100.62	22:56:33	7,267
Franklin Mountains Trail Run - King of the Mountain (TROT)	Nov	El Paso, TX, USA	2nd overall	3.47	1:02:26	2,090
Franklin Mountains Trail Run 100 km (TROT)	Nov	El Paso, TX, USA	5th overall	62.70	15:44:35	12,822
Franklin Mountains Trail Run 10 km (TROT)	Nov	El Paso, TX, USA	5th overall	6.38	1:16:06	1,289
Texas B.M.F. (Last Human Standing) (TROT)	Nov	Cat Spring, TX, USA	1st overall	135.80	32:42:42	3,080
Brazos Bend 100 Mi (TROT)	Dec	Needville, TX, USA	25th place	97.93	21:34:42	362

For 2021 I had a few running goals I wanted to achieve: 

1. Complete another x5 100 milers at minimum

✓  8 more 100 Mi+ events run & completed (which included x2 more of >200 Mi)

2. Distance goal of 3,107 Mi

✓   3,712.71 Mi achieved

3. Vertical gain goal of 250,000 ft+ gained

✗  244,385 ft+ actual – nearly got my goal and yearly PR

4. Continue my streak of 200 Mi minimum per month

✓  all 12 months. I am now at 42 months in a row of 200 Mi minimum mileage: consistency is key!

5. Expand my #EverySingleStreet footprint in home Fort Bend County

✓  done- expanded for sure this year. I use this concept of street running to keep myself actively engaged in my junk mileage and just the gamification of training miles. 

✓  I completed 3 more smaller towns adjacent to Sugar Land and currently working on the larger Missouri City as I continue to expand my map. I have a global rank on CityStrides in the top 99% percentile (current rank #190 with 4,178 lifetime streets completed)

✓  #EverySingleStreet progress:

DATE	CITY	STREETS	DISTANCE	VERT	RUNS	COMMENTS
2019-2020	Sugar Land, TX, USA	1,699 +	1,818.81 Mi	17,032 ft+	253	Blog Post. completed 2020-Jul-25
2020-2021	Stafford, TX, USA	282	151.31 Mi	1,194 ft+	17	completed 2021-Jan-09
2021	Meadows Places, TX, USA	55	28.69 Mi	253 ft+	5	completed 2021-Jan-30
2021	Richmond, TX, USA	194 +	216.58 Mi	2,024 ft+	25	completed 2021-Jun-21
2021-2022	Missouri City, TX, USA	1,280 +	(156.14 Mi)	(700 ft+)	(21)	32.66% (in progress)

One of the best thing I have experienced with trail running and been lucky enough to be a part of is being on some teams. For the 2021 season I was once again privileged to be a part of Team TROT (as mentioned above), as well as rabbitELITEtrail, and Team Victory. I am very grateful to be selected onto these teams and their continued support for myself as a ultra trail runner. I am very proud to represent these brands and wear their logos as I run my events all year long.

rabbit | rabbitELITEtrail Team.

Trail Racing Over Texas | Team TROT. 

Victory Sportdesign | Team Victory.

Family Growth

Birthday photo (Aug-2021)

Another summer birthday for me passed by as I turned 41 years old. To me I really don’t like to celebrate birthdays whatsoever and so I try not to even have my family do much for me. My eldest daughter has her birthday close by and so I tend to deflect the focus to her and keep any spotlight off my day. I was even lazy on my birthday this year taking a “zero day” and not running at all, since I was about to start Habanero Hundred 2 days later in the immense Texas summer heat.

Another wonderful thing to happen this year was a lot more family time all together. Due to my work office being closed we travelled out to my Mother-in-laws cabin out in Arnold, California. It was a great little get away to the higher elevation and just escaping to mountain scenery in general. Working remotely and not missing any of my work meetings or project build outs. Getting outside with my kids more regularly on family walks has also been a noticeable bonus this year.

Family Hike at Big Trees Calaveras State Park, Arnold, CA (Jul-2021).

Getting outside during the pandemic in our family time in our own neighborhood, Sugar Land, TX (May-2021). We relied on short walks or even bike rides to get some fresh air as often as we could, daily was our goal.

By far the most pleasant surprise in 2021 for our family was the finding out that our little house of 6 is now expanding to include a 7th human late next spring. Yes that is correct, we are expecting our 5th child late in April. We could not be happier. As with all our previous children we have not found out the sex of the child yet. We have been surprised 4 times with daughters and will be eager to see what is next. Our lives may be getting a little more complicated but we are eager to love and raise our children.

The latest Meding family photo from Christmas Eve (Dec-2021). All 6.5 of us! (Due date late Apr-2022).

Pandemic (mis)Adventures

CV-19

Well, we have been living with this virus and the fear surrounding this now for 18+ months. My family and I have been cautious from the beginning. We did leave our household for like 1 month when it was first announced back in spring of 2020 and pulled our kids out of school, even prior to the school closures, and opted for home-schooling. I was also allowed optional remote work initially before it was a mandatory thing shortly after. It was a long hard year for all of us. 6 People packed into a household without the usual break from each other that office work and school days routinely provide.

Quarantine Lockdown

Our second daughter, L, grappling with online lessons.

The year of homeschooling was trying and not the best mentally for our then 8 and 6 year old. They definitely were missing the social interaction that the young school years provide kids. I now realize how vital those seemingly simple things are important for the growth and development of young minds. Our kids were not thriving at home all throughout the prior year of home lessons and schoolwork we did at home. It was so sad to see our innocent kids being held hostage to this forced situation of virtual learning. Cleary it was not for them.

On the flip side I was completely okay with the fact my job allowed me to work 100% remote. As a full on introvert, it even further helped me be able to be a little more productive while working less hours. This was a common thread seen across many different industries and variety of roles based on the forced work-at-home conditions in 2020.

School Year 2021 School Year

Here in South Texas the school year starts quite early for some reason, still not entirely sure the reasons on that, but our kids were due back for mid-August this year. After a good summer break of remaining away from everyone except ourselves and the one visit we had to my wife mom’s place we didn’t interact with anyone and remained social distancing for the safety. The decision to send out kids back to the school, in which the Texas governor was determined to have open without mask mandates (no comment!), and even passed a law preventing such, was inevitably a very hard decision for my wife and I. We debated it back and forth for many weeks in the summer but based on our kids mental health and the lack of social interaction they had missed out on the prior year we landed on the decision to enroll our 2 oldest daughters back into elementary and our 3rd daughter into pre-K at a local establishment.

Our 2 oldest daughters are great kids. Both A & L listened to us from the beginning and would wear masks and complied with our requests. We would ask them how class was each day and if classmates were wearing masks and even if their teachers were. Often, we might get some concerning feedback but nothing ever came of it as we passed through Aug…Sep….and into October.

Oct-2021

Katie and I looked at each other…we each had the same thought as we had just received and email from the school indicating our 2nd daughter was “exposed” to someone whom had been confirmed positive with the virus and were recommending we isolate for safety. We instantly agree to go and pick up L and get her home for safety reasons due to this news. A couple days later she begins to deep cough…shit! We quickly arranged for a covid test the next morning, and sure enough it came back positive…double shit!! As soon as the result came in my wife went and got A out of class and home for isolation as well (precautionary, as recommended by CDC for anyone exposed directly). Now what? How are we supposed to isolate the most energetic outgoing 4 year old (L) there ever was. Her and her big sister are nearly inseparable, and now she was home too wondering why exactly she was pulled from school when she had no symptoms of being sick.

The next couple of weeks were full of hell and misery. Three of the four kids ended up getting it along with my wife contracting it as a breakthrough infection since we were both double vaccinated already. Myself and our youngest (H) did not test positive at all. This meant that we were trying to separate ourselves, within the same household, from everyone else. I spent 10 days or better sleeping alone downstairs on the floor in a sleeping mat as my wife coughed about upstairs. The absolute worse part of this was watching H (whom was 2, turning 3 years old) not fully comprehending my she could not give her mom a hug. Watching helplessly as she cried and screamed just for a hug goodnight was heart wrenching. This utterly was destructive on my wife’s emotions as well as we were all stretched thin at this point. Luckily to the thoughtfulness of Katie’s brothers and sisters we received dinner deliveries every 2nd night or so in order to help ease the burden of preparing food. This was a huge and we are very grateful for their help during these 2 weeks. A simple gesture of a dinner delivery was a giant help.

Having Covid travel so easy through our household and knock my vaccinated wife out for a bit showed just how real this virus could be. I am thankful we were okay and that the kids were not really affected health wise at all. The kids that did get covid (A, L, P) all were only sick like a severe cold for maybe 48 hours and they bounced back quickly. My wife Katie was hit hardest and was nearly bed bound and quite tired for the better part of a week before regaining her former self. I could not imagine if she we had not had the vaccine.

Dec-2021

My wife receiving one of her vaccine shots.

Since this ordeal my wife and I have both been eligible for our booster shot (3rd shot total) and have received them. Our two eldest (A & L) both being over 5 were also allowed to get vaccinated as well after the CDC approved the use for 5-12 age range and they have now gotten both shots each. Our third daughter (P) turns 5 years old right at the end of the year and we will be getting her first shot promptly. Anyway I just don’t wish a bad bout of covid to anyone’s household as it can be something else, and I was lucky in that our family could all handle it without anyone needing medical attention.

Work Life

working from home in my EZ rabbit gear.

I was lucky enough early in 2020 where I switched roles in my company into an IT Project Management Scheduling role which was a unique opportunity for me. I had never done something like this but had been exposed to a portion of it with my prior role. Being new into the role and the fact there is actually only 2 of us supporting thousands of project members and a couple hundred ongoing project plans it keeps me busy and motivated. Working in the IT portion of organization and the support I bring now was a blessing right before the pandemic because I can literally do 98% of my daily tasks and work without needing too much intervention and actual interactions with the various teams. When we went full teleworking and working remote, which our company embraced proactively being one of the first few, I enjoyed the change. This persisted on throughout 2021 and as I mentioned provided some great family opportunities such as an impromptu extra vacation to a remote cabin where I could still work and we travelled to and from on the weekends. Overall the teleworking has been excellent. I get to walk my daughters to school nearly every day as a short family walk to kick start the day. At school pickup I can usually stop and take the 30 minutes to go and walk with them home as well which is a huge perk, so much better than sitting in traffic driving home from the Houston office for 45 minutes. Our company has introduced a hybrid flex working model to return to the office where you can come in 2 days a week and work remotely the remaining 3.

I have a couple longer year project plans on the go and a couple more we are just starting to build out that require ongoing maintenance and updating, progress reporting, and just overall upkeep of the plans. This will keep me busy for the upcoming near future and I enjoy this type of work. I am glad to of had this opportunity and continue to pursue some new skills within Project Management and Project Scheduling while working with a diverse variety of our business facing internal customers throughout the company.

My USA Status

When I transferred to the United States, for work at the end of 2017, I was relocated on a 3 year L1-B work Visa. Everything was great and had no issues. When it was coming up for renewal with about a year left I applied for the work Visa extension (through work) and also at the same time initiated a Permanent Residence (Green Card) Visa process. I was granted the work Visa initial extension which covered me through Mar-2021 as the official decision on the extension was being made, meaning I was allowed to remaining working as such at the time. At the same time we were actively submitting and getting everything done for the Green Card process in parallel also in case my Work Visa would run out first, or worse if the work Visa extension was denied.

There ended up being some very stressful days because my Visa Extension had not yet come through and the interim period of legal status granted was coming due at the beginning of March. Work was unable to legally have me work, and I was unable to work anywhere else since I did not have any legal status yet other than this work Visa. It was very stressful situation and I received a phone call on the very last day of my visa deadline where they informed me it had been granted extension through Jul-2022. The paperwork took 3 more days before arriving in my mailbox and legally I was furloughed for those days and did not/could not work until I had the actual paper copy of my work Visa extension myself.

Since this ordeal in the spring we have continued on the Green Card process and after just over 2 years I had my initial interview here in early December. Since my wife is born United States citizen and we have been married for 10+ years it was a pretty straight forward interview once we got in there. I have now received my Permanent Residence (Green Card) card which grants me legal USA status through 2031. We were very thankful to get this over and done with.

I am now a legal Permanent Resident in the United States.

The Future

What is ahead and what does 2022 bring for me (for us the Meding’s)…

• Family: Well one thing for sure is we are adding to the chaos of our household with the 5th child.
• Work: In terms of work I have some large multi-year project plans I am busy building and publishing for our global teams and so that keeps me busy maintaining these and updating all the changes that occur throughout the change management process.
• Ultra Running: I do not have a lot of concrete plans (…yet). I do have 2 races on the calendar thus far which is Running the Rose 108 km (Jan) & then The Barkley Fall Classic (Sep). I also want to run x3-5 100 milers as well as at least x1 200 mile effort. But my schedule will come to life later than normal as I will sign up last minute for a lot of my races and not sure if I will be able to travel too much this year.

To kick off 2022 I have already start some streaks I want to continue. As of 2021-Dec-01 I have a streak of no alcohol going, and also a new daily run streak. Thanks to my good friends at Athletic Brewing Company I still have some awesome beers to enjoy just without the alcohol (give them a try - see my Friends tab for referral discount). So as I publish this post I am 34 days into my run streak and sober streak as well.

Final Thoughts

To me what is weird and profound is the fact that we as humans tend to attach our memories and progression all tied to the existence of time itself. Recently I watched this episode of “Explained: Time” on Netflix which explored this very thread of thought. I recommend this short documentary style show for everyone to inspire some deep reflection on our relationship with time.

Thank you for taking the time to read my memories and reflection on the 365.25 rotations of Earth around the Sun and looking back on the year that was 2021 from my perspective.

----- End 2021. Start 2022. -----

This is my own self created #ultrarunningdad brand logo.
* I will have to update this come next spring with a new name to add