2010 Goals: Check!

As the year drew to a close, Alan was watching his total running mileage creep up and decided that he wanted to complete 500 miles by December 31st, and he did it!  So, of course, we've been thinking about how many miles we'd like to run in 2011 and what races we're planning to do (and therefore what our training plans need to look like).


I decided I'd better check in with last year's goals to see how I did.  Below are excerpts from my post on 01-10-10 titled "Nancy's Brave Plan" and it sure did feel brave at the time:

Goal 1: Become a "runner", specifically, someone who can run 1.5 miles 3 times per week by April.
Method: Hal Higdon's 30/30 plan
Additional tools: HH's Beginner Runner's Guide (arrived in yesterday's mail), new sneakers (Alan and I bought them for each other for Christmas), new sports watch (birthday gift from Alan)...do you sense a theme here?
Well, I did that all right!  Starting with the 30/30, I ran my first consecutive mile in late February.


Goal 2: Run a 5K Memorial Day Weekend (or thereabouts--still looking for a local race around then, or maybe Alan and I will just set a date to run that distance by ourselves and let our weekend house guests baby-sit/cheer us on).
Method: Hal Higdon 5K training plan, beginning April 4th (which is why I need to be able to do goal #1...).
I met this goal early: I started Hal's 5k training the second week in March and ran my first ever roadrace, the "Health High 5k" on 04-20-10.  


Goal 3: Run and/or walk the MDI HALF MARATHON in September (I can't believe I'm actually saying this! I'm anxious for the online registration to become available so I can't back out!)
Method: Hal Higdon Half Marathon training plan starting in late June; run the Fourth of July 3K as part of training.
Additional tools: Alan, Emilie, Jenn, everyone supporting me along the way...right guys?!?
I never said it was going to be pretty--and it wasn't--but I met this goal too.  I walked a lot of it, and was pretty darn miserable for a lot of it, but I'm really proud of myself for finishing.  I absolutely could NOT have done it without Alan, Jenn and Emilie's support from day one, without Emilie running me home, and without so many friends and family cheering me on.  [I hope you're not sick of me yet, because there's more to come!] 


Goal 4: Run the Turkey Trek on Thanksgiving Day.
Method: Try not to be in an air-cast, and get my baking done ahead of time!
Done! (although I did take a few short walking breaks and I lucked out when we decided to move our Thanksgiving feast to Friday). 

And I accomplished so many other things while achieving--and surpassing--those original goals.  This brings me back to one of my favorite quotes: "self esteem expands when we accomplish something that is difficult and has meaning to us."  I'm proud of me and proud of us and am finally excited about saying next year's goals out loud.