New here? Come say hello (January 2023)

[Soren]

👋 Hello and welcome to Strava Community Hub!

We love getting to know all of our new members every month, so if that happens to be you, we are excited to hear a little bit more about you. If you're comfortable, here are some points to share: 

• Your name
• Which country/state you're from
• Your favorite Sport Types
• Your 2023 intentions

My name is Soren and I am from Switzerland but live in Denver, Colorado. I am a passionate cyclist, but I enjoy many other kinds of movement such as weight lifting, walking, stretching, water sports and badminton. Last year, I set a big distance goal, which I achieved a few days before the year ended, but it left me feeling quite depleted. This year I've decided that I would much rather prefer to have experience-based goals, such as go bikepacking with co-workers, discover more dirt trails, ride under the moonlight, run a marathon (with the goal to simply complete it), focus on fostering a community of cyclists that's interested in having fun and being curious (vs. ego or competition).

Leave your introduction in the thread below and let's start talking. 

[GaryAndMabel]

Hello, I'm Gary from Wales. I run canicross with my lurcher, Mabel. Hoping to get a few more events under my belt this year. I have two or three in the offing for the end of March/start of April.

A number of us from the canicross group I belong to are planning more multiday mountain canihikes and wildcamps for 2023.
I would dearly like to see Strava include canicross as one of the activities available. It is after all, a pretty big worldwide sport these days.

[Soren]

Hi Gary 👋 and Mabel! Thanks for introducing yourself and sharing your passion for canicross! I see you were able to find the existing idea to add Canicross and kudo'd it! Your upcoming multi-day adventures sound promising. I'm curious how you first got into canicross and how long you've had Mabel for?

[GaryAndMabel]

Mabel was 9 in November. She came to me as a rescue at 14 weeks old, having been born at the greyhound and lurcher rescue centre near Shrewsbury. She's been my running buddy since she was around 15 months old. I'd done a few parkruns prior to running with her and noticed other folk running canicross style, so I started running with her there. Then I discovered a couple of local canicross groups and away we went from there.

The canihike last year was superb, Harlech to Abermaw through y Rhinogydd.

[Jane]

Hi Gary,

Jane from Strava here.  I just had to chime in here and say how gorgeous Mabel is!  I'm a huge sight hound fan - my previous dog was a Greyhound I adopted from from a track in West Virginia.  

[vagner_acorja]

Myself and Lula Holanda the founder of ACORJAMy name is Vagner and I'm from Brazil, I live in Recife, Pernambuco and I love running. Last year I joined ACORJA, a well-established running group from Recife (it's turning 18 this February) - I'm trying the get the verified badge for the club. I found ACORJA on strava, and I'm very glad for this, it's changed my running, my life and I made many friends. So many thanks!

My goal of 2022 was to run my first marathon, however I suffered an injury on November 16th, but "with a little help from my friends" of ACORJA, I reached my 2022 goal on December 31st! I hope you could run your first marathon in 2023, I loved to run my first i'm planning many others.

ACORJA family

This year I want to keep running with the ACORJA family, run marathons (4 or more), run at least 3660km - which is the distance from Recife to Porto Alegre (the capital of my home state). I'm using the "challenge group" to run the 3660km and many friends of ACORJA joined.

Thanks for keep updatting Strava to promote the health and the friendship.

[Soren]

Hello Vagner and welcome to Strava Community Hub! It's a pleasure to hear from you, thank you so much for sharing your passion for running and community -- it sounds like your running club on Strava has helped you make some wonderful connections with like-minded people and we love that it has positively shaped your life. We're looking forward to hearing more from you in this space, you seem to be well-versed in lots of our features! When is your first marathon of the year and what are you doing to prepare for it?

[vagner_acorja]

Hello Soren, thanks for the welcome!
April 2nd will be my first marathon of 2023. I'm not looking to run fast, I just want to finish well. I'm doing my preparation running at least 70km (43.5 miles) per week. I do my trainings in an easy pace to enjoy the route with my friends. A famous African proverb reads "If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together".

PS: I have other ideas to improve some features of strava, but I'll take it easy for not spamming the moderation team.

[alexrieu]

Hey Soren, nice to meet you and the rest of the community! 
I'm Alexandre, 31 years old, from Paris and I'm a Strava enthusiast since a long time ago, especially for running and cycling tracking mostly ;). I'm currently following a Strava plan to prepare Paris Marathon in April and following my stats and progress via Strava features is a great plus ! 

[Soren]

Salut Alexandre, it's awesome to hear from you, how you use Strava to track your progress and stay consistent, and your plans to run the Paris Marathon! What's the weather forecast typically like in April? Have you completed a marathon before?