2011, Then 2012

Seems like a good time to reflect on the year that has passed, see how I've done with all I wanted to accomplish, and in general find a creative outlet for some of my nostalgia (which lately has been pretty prevalent in my mind).

What were my personal goals outside of running this year?

That's easy.  Pass the PE Exam.  Get ahead of the housework and stay ahead.  Do some maintenance on the house that is overdo.  Learn sign language.

I passed the PE (found out last week!).  That's a huge career milestone that I fear I haven't put enough emphasis on here, because it isn't really related to my running (unless you count the runs I skipped while studying for it).

The housework is mostly caught up after cleaning for the holidays.  It probably won't stay that way.  This goal will likely continue into next year, and the year after...

I didn't do most of the maintenance stuff I wanted.  I was busy with other stuff (read:  goofing off).

Learn sign language.  This is not a pipe dream.  It will happen.  Someday...


What did I want to do this year as a runner?

Every year starts out great (just like every day).  Full of possibilities, ideas, schemes, goals that you think, "Yea, I'll do that.  Piece of cake."  And sometimes it is.  But more often than not, there are a lot of failures, and the grander the plan, the more spectacular the failure.  And I tend to plan big.

-Run some "fast" 5k races.  The plan was to get under 20 minutes first (which I haven't done since high school), then work towards something in the 18 minute range.  I didn't even get close to cracking 20 minutes.
-Run more events.  I don't have anyone nearby that I run with.  I don't know many of the local runners, because I just don't run enough races to meet that many people.  I wanted to run several 5k races, a few longer ones, and a half marathon.  I ran the half, and 2 5k's.  Not even close.
-Run my first half marathon.  Here I succeeded, and it was one of my favorite races that I've ever been a part of.  I'm really hoping that it works out for me to run it again next year.  Big plans sometimes equal big successes.
-Kick butt at the Thanksgiving Day 8k in my hometown.  You can't have a good race if you don't train consistently, don't eat healthy, and don't even show up.
-Run over 1,200 miles this calendar year.  I'm at 896 miles as of December 30th, I don't think I'll be making this one, but I am going to make 900.  Close enough?

In terms of planning and goals, it was a pretty modest year for me, and I still managed to fail almost completely.  The half marathon was really the only success I had for the year as a runner, but I always see these things in context.  Everyone has failures, and you can't realistically expect to hit a home run every time I swing the bat.  Maybe if I showed up to the batting cages a bit more often between games...

And my one big success really was big.  It was the only race distance I'd never raced, and I went out and did exactly what I wanted to do.  Everyone wants that perfect race, that moment in the sun, and for one hour, forty seven minutes, and thirty six seconds, I experienced something that a large number of athletes spend their whole lives longing for.  I was who I hoped to be, and did what I set out to do - what more can a person ask for in their entire life?

I took a moment this morning to go back and read an article on ESPN that was one of my favorites of the year.  Author Jeff MacGregor, one of my favorites, wrote a piece about his disillusion with professional basketball and how watching a young man named Lukas Verzbicas run a 4 minute mile (only the 5th American high school runner to do so, ever) brought him to a place where he could remember what sports should be.  It is one of the best written sports articles I've ever read (read it yourself here, and I think it underscores what I would like my life to be.  For a brief, magical period, this young man was exactly the way he dreamed himself to be.

I don't do New Years resolutions.  I typically set a list of goals for myself for the coming year, but of the 10 or 12 I set, I usually only accomplish a couple, and this method isn't serving me very well.  There are goals, and there are dreams, and the dreams are usually much bigger and farther away than the goals.  I'm going to spend the year making my dreams and my goals the same, and in every endeavor in 2012, I'm going to attempt to be the person that I am in my own fantasies.  No more goals set months in advance, to be brushed aside when they get hard or something else comes up.  Just dealing with what is out in front of me, and doing it in a way that leaves me feeling the same way I felt in the middle of the Virginia Beach Half Marathon - real, genuine, exactly who I wanted to be doing exactly what I intended to do.

Happy New Year!