Running

Sometimes I hear things and they catch my attention.  Sometimes they sit with me for awhile and I forget them, or sometimes...like in this case...I hear them again and again and I have to stop and acknowledge them.  

On NYE, I sent a few texts to family and friends I love wishing them a Happy 2012.  One of them sent me back a text that said, "I'm just sitting down right now writing my goals for the New Year and thinking about WHO I want to be and WHERE I want to be."    

I'm a goal oriented girl.  I plan stuff.  I like to organize things and make lists about them and then work my butt off to get them.  Most of the time that works out...not always, but most of the time.  I look forward to New Year's Eve, and the beginning of a new school year, and Mondays, and every other occasion where it's possible and necessary to set new goals and plan stuff.  

But I've NEVER once planned WHO or WHERE I want to be.  That thought from Paula lingered for awhile this weekend.   But by Monday, it had moved on.  And then I heard it again on Monday night...from an entirely different source, in a completely different way.  But I definitely heard it, and this time wasn't able to get rid of it.  


WHO do I want to be in 2012?  I'm not entirely sure of that yet, but I have a few ideas I've scribbled down.  Some of them are big, personal or spiritual things, and some of them are a little less weighty.  Here's one of the less weighty ones...BEWARE!  It's a little crazy.

What if I decide to be a RUNNER in 2012?  I've never been a runner before.  I've never even wanted to be one.  In fact, some people reading this right now are thinking of all those times that I've always said, "I would rather stick pokey things in my eyes than RUN anywhere!"  But what if this year I decided to be something totally different than anything I've ever been before?  It's totally possible.  That's the whole reason we're here on earth is to experience stuff, and learn from it, and make mistakes, and do it better the next time.  So, I'm trying something new.  And so far, I LOVE it.  It's only been a couple of days, but it's a huge rush, and I haven't wanted to stop at the end of the 40 minutes.  


I started yesterday.  I have a plan.  There's an awesome website called Couch 2 5K and they give you a detailed training plan to go from "non-runner" to "runner" in less than two months.  So that would be approximately March.  And guess what?!  There happens to be a 5K Allen Eagle Run on March 3rd.  So guess what I'm working toward!?  Yep...registration is now through February 10th.  


And THEN I thought...if I can work toward a 5K, I can work toward a few more miles, right?
There's a half marathon next New Year's Day.  13.1 miles...that's totally possible.   And I would get one of those really cool stickers for my van! 

The plan on the website breaks it down into "walk for ?? seconds, then run for ?? seconds," and you keep increasing the amount of running time and decreasing the amount of walking time until at the end of 5 weeks, you're running the full 3 miles in 20 minutes.  Totally do-able.  


But because I'm slightly technologically retarded, and can't figure out how to get the stopwatch on my phone to work at the same time as the music is playing, I've figured out a better plan...
On my favorite nearby walking (um...I mean, running) trail, there are sidewalks separated by a handful of bridges.  I'm not a big fan of bridges (even little ones over tiny streams) so I don't particularly love the bridge part of my walk anyway, so yesterday on Day 1 of my TRAINING (how cool does that sound??) I decided that I would walk the SIDEWALKS and run the BRIDGES.  I added two extra BRIDGES into my route even though they're slightly off the regular path.  Each BRIDGE has a decorative FENCE that starts a few meters before you get to the BRIDGE and continues after the BRIDGE stops.  Next week, I'm going to add the FENCES to my running plan.  Eventually, I'll run the SIDEWALKS and walk the FENCES and/or BRIDGES until 5 weeks from now when I'm running the whole thing!  (Good plan, huh?)  


I read this last month...

You can make 2012 the best year of your life! And you can do it very easily, right now.

All you have to do is set the most powerful intention you have ever set in your life, which is that you will focus only on what you want, think only about what you want, and talk only about what you want. Decide right now that anytime you find yourself thinking or talking about what you don't want, you will stop and demand of yourself, "What is it that I want?" And with all your might, with all your strength, with all your willpower - you will focus on what you want!

This one intention, repeated daily until the New Year and reinforced through 2012, will ensure that you make 2012 the year that your dreams came true, and the greatest year of your life!

- Rhonda Byrne

So, that's what this blog post is for...I'm deciding right now that I want to be a RUNNER in 2012 and I'm talking about it, thinking about it, and focusing on it...publicly.   There are other things, too, that I'm focusing on this year, but that's the only one I'm publicly displaying at the moment.