We are at the beginning of a new year and it is a time of renewal. It is a time where people set new goals for the year. Some people’s goal come in the form of resolutions to do things like work out more or eat less. I am not the sort that waits for New Year’s Day to make changes, so resolutions are not part of my normal vocabulary. If I want to change some thing, I just start making the changes. I plan on talking about goal setting soon, but today is not the day for that.
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| My Best Nine from 2017 according to Instagram |
2017 was a really difficult year in a lot of respects. We had a house fire in early March. While the actual fire damage was fairly minor, due to my wife’s very quick thinking, There was several thousands of dollars in damage as well as the time my family was displaced from the home. No one was injured in the fire, but, it did put the family in a bit of a tailspin until we all returned home a few months later.
About a month after the fire, I competed in my first full Marathon. I picked one that was close to home, but at the time of the race, we were living in a hotel about 25 miles from where we live, so I had to drive a farther distance to the race than planned. That was not the only “home field advantage” that I lost or forfeited. I have lived in my town for over 10 years. I knew that the area where the race is held is windy all of the time. I did not take that into account when I picked what I was going to wear during the race. As a result, I froze over the whole course, wearing only a t-shirt and shorts. I would have benefitted well from a long sleeve shirt if nothing else. I ended up finishing the race with a time of 5:12:47. Not a bad time at all for my first marathon, but I will have to admit that I was disappointed with my time, initially. I had it in my head that I could estimate my time based on the times I have had during my half marathons. That could not be farther from the truth. Running a marathon is a lot more than double the physical requirements of a half marathon. There is a sizable mental aspect to the event. I learned about myself as well as how to prepare for a marathon. When I finished, I thought a lot about if I would do another one. In time, I decided that I would and that is part of what I will be talking about in the weeks ahead.
As far as my running for this year, I ran a total of 1,036 miles over the course of the year. Not bad, but I do plan to go farther this year. I am also planning on working more on my upper body strength. I think that will go a long way toward helping me improve on my overall race performance. I will be writing about that as well.
While 2017 was not the year that I wanted, it does not define what 2018 will be. I would like this to be encouraging to whom ever read it. Another project that I am doing this year is posting a picture a day on Instagram. If you are interested in seeing what I post the, please follow me @1pairofshoes. That is my handle on Twitter as well, but, I kind of just post wha comes to mind there as well as retweet the things that I find interesting. Beware!! Happy New Year!!
