Last year was my first year ever running a marathon. I started off pretty slow but managed to complete 5 full marathons through the year without stopping once during any of them. My best time was 4h 07m 58s in Atlanta on Thanksgiving day, with times for every race coming in under 4h 20m. I can honestly say that I am in better shape now than I was in my 20s and I feel great.
My 2010 New Year’s Resolution is to run eight full marathons and one ultra marathon. Here are the races I have have booked or will book as soon as registration opens.
January : ING Miami Marathon
February : Jacksonville Marathon and Gasparilla Marathon
March : ING Georgia Marathon
April : Charlottesville Marathon
May : Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon
June : Newport Marathon
July : San Francisco Marathon
August : Extraterrestrial Full Moon Midnight 51k (Ultra Marathon!)
September : TBD
October : Steamtown Marathon
November : NYC Marathon and Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon
December : St. Jude Memphis Marathon
Commit to Success, Plan for Obstacles
You may have noticed that I have more than 8 marathons listed above. I have done that for two reasons : 1. I fully intend on shattering my goal. 2. I realize that I may get sick or have to deal with an emergency causing me to miss a race. I had scheduled the Disney marathon earlier this month but had to punt because of illness.
Big, audacious goals require upfront planning and milestones along the way. You can’t just say “I am going to run 8 marathons” or “I am going to lose 30 pounds”. When and where do you plan on running each race? When do you intend to lose your first 10 pounds and how? You need to break up big goals into smaller, achievable pieces and create a clear path to success.
Quick Tip
I find that blogging my goals helps me really stick to them. Once they are on public display it is hard to take them back or make excuses.
For me, my main goal is definitely to get back into a regular, working-out routine. I was doing so well last year but have been out of the exercise thing for months-and-months – every bit of good I did has been thrown out the window.