From NR: Happy 2010

I have to share my Christmas Day running story! I was in Wisconsin that day and it was raining/sleeting most of the day and about 10:00 I finally head out the door to do a quick 4 miles. It's raining, the roads are crappy - slush and snow and wet and slippery - and I'm running into a fairly stiff head wind and what I'm thinking is: "Man, this is awesome!"

Clearly something is wrong with me . . . I have always loved running in the rain, though. This also marks the first run (I think) where I've been offered a ride from someone driving by because clearly no-one would be out running in that weather by choice. I just grinned and said I was just fine.

So Happy New Year, everyone! Here's hoping 2010 is a good year for all. I didn't do so well with my goals for last year but the most important one, keeping running fun and not stressing if/when things go wrong, I was able to stick to. January 1st is an important date for another reason - many marathon fees went up yesterday. So I finally decided on running the Eau Claire Marathon on May 2 and registered while I could still get the early rate. Who else is coming with? It looks like a beautiful course and I'm excited for another new race! There's also a Half Marathon and a 2 mile.

I have lots of races that I want to do this year, of course. Last year, I only made it to 10 races, not counting the NMTC series! I started using Google calendar from my email to write down every race that I have any interest in, just to see when everything is. Hopefully that will help me remember when things are and plan ahead to make it to races better.

Here are my 2010 goals that I'm ready to share (yes, this means there are some that I'm not ready to share yet):
- make it strong through the February blahs
- consistantly log my runs ALL YEAR even if it's just jotting down the mileage and nothing else
- break 3:30 in a marathon, hopefully Eau Claire
- keep my mileage up all year
- run my first ultra (probably the Wild Duluth 50K)
- stay injury free
and, of course
- keep running fun for myself and those running with me