The world did not end, so it’s time to take advantage of a new year and make some pretty bold resolutions with every intent to follow through with them.

After dad died last October, I began thinking about my own life, how to improve on it.  It’s easy to say we want to lose weight but it’s not always easy to actually accomplish it.  It’s easy to make promises that can’t be kept.  Thinking about it now, maybe it’s just that we need to find something that we can enjoy.  For me, it appears to be running.  Three months ago, I never thought about running.  I was thinking maybe do a few 5K walks and cheer myself for just getting out of the apartment to do something new.  The first 2012 walk (in November) went about as expected but it was slightly different.  It wasn’t in my own backyard.  It was in a strange place around total strangers, and I liked it.  Then I was intrigued by the fact that some 5K races didn’t restrict you to choosing between walking and running.  So in the next race, I tried some running.  Much tougher for someone who doesn’t generally run except for around the bases.  The 5K seemed to last forever but it eventually ended and I survived.  Two weeks later, I ran in a second 5K.  It seemed remarkably easier.  I ran a lot longer, faster and increased my pace by over 2 minutes.

So I’m feeling incredibly confident now with the 5K, I decided to push forward with my goal to run in a 5K race in every month of the new year.  But running twelve races in 2013 didn’t sound complete, so I’ll add a race and make it an ‘even’ 13 in 2013.  In addition, the new adventure in running accompanied with the journey to an out-of-state race led me to decide to make it into a 50-State bucket list adventure.  The ease of running the 5Ks and the urge to make the 50 state adventure a tad more reasonably challenging, I decided to up it to 10Ks.  I can run a 5K anytime, but to count towards my 50-State challenge, it should be a 10K.  If for some reason I begin to find it difficult to find reasonable 10Ks that I can attend, perhaps I could settle for 2-5Ks, but for now I’m going for 10K.  (I say that because the number of 10Ks readily available and during a time I can possibly travel to some of these locations is far less than the number of 5Ks.)  Why not marathons you ask?  Does anyone actually believe I could run a marathon?  Within 7 hours even?  Perhaps in a few years, with some thorough training that helps with my endurance, but I’m eager to start my challenge, so 10Ks it is.  🙂

I guess 2013 will also be the year I start a blog. Perhaps I can use it for this and other travel adventures and… time will tell.

Anyway, for now, I’ve got the site set up with some quick info and my list of races as I sign up or plan for and complete them.  I intend to include a map as soon as I decide which I like best and which is easiest to update.  I’ll come up with other stuff as I go along.

It’s only Jan 2 and I’ve already signed up for four races this year in the first three months, 1-5K and 3-10Ks, in two states.  I intend to look into a third and possibly a fourth this summer.  Let’s see if I can start knocking out the south quickly in 2013.  Hey, come join me if you like.  It’s not like I’m that fast.