2012 Year in Review

Well, despite the best-laid plans of mice and men and county-countdown runners....  Yep, as great a start as we got off to in 2012, the last quarter of the year didn't take us to too many new places because of busy schedules and not traveling as much.  But 2012 was still a great year for visiting new counties and running in new parts of the state; we still managed to run in 13 new counties -- more than one month on average (I did that math myself) -- and have an awful lot of fun in our journeys.

Chad's new counties in 2012 (4):  Hyde, Buncombe, Yancey, Stokes
Brad's new counties in 2012 (14):  Stanly, Beaufort, Richmond, Halifax, Lee, Hyde, Duplin, Yadkin, Cherokee, Polk, Clay, Person, Pasquotank, Stokes

Chad's total counties:  42
Brad's total counties:  68
Combined total counties:  78

It was another border-to-border year for us, as we got to visit everything from the mountains of Cherokee County and Yancey County in the west to the barrier islands of Hyde County to the Virginia borders of Stokes County to the northeastern shores of Pasquotank County.  We're fortunate to get to live and run in a very beautiful state, and each time we get to run someplace new it's a treat to get to see new sights and meet new folks. 

We were delighted to get to run together in an inaugural 5k together in Okracoke of Hyde County and in the hills of Stokes County.  Chad visited the beautiful Biltmore House in Buncombe County and the lovely small towns of Yancey County.  Brad got to run with some doggies at the Coon Dog Day 5k in Polk County and with the new Chatuge Running Club in Clay County and the Running of the Idiots in Stanly County.

We passed the seventy-county mark in May and had a chance at getting to eighty counties by the end of the year, but there will be opportunities to get there early in 2013.  With only about 20 counties left to visit, part of the scheduling issue now is that we have to find out when the remaining counties have races -- sometimes only one per year -- and plan around that.  We'll see how well we can do that in the coming year!

Keep an eye out for our tour bus coming through your town in 2013!  Keep those cards and letters coming in, and, as always, come run with us!  See you in the year ahead!