So 2013 ended on a pretty high note.  Quick summation, I ran in 11 actual races, 3 of them were 10Ks, I also ran my first half marathon.  I ran in four different states (although only one counts towards my 50 state goal).  I ate better also.  I didn’t diet but drank less cokes, ate less fast food, moved around more, and was able to lose 40 pounds over the course of 365 days.  To end the year, I traveled to the middle east, ran my feet through Arabian desert sand and went up the world’s tallest building.  So I had my sights set pretty high going into 2014.  I had three half marathons in three states planned really quickly to start off the year.  Then reality set in.  Just when I thought I could do just about anything I wanted whenever I wanted, I realized that sometimes life has other plans.

The first failure reared its ugly head when I decided to sign up for the Mississippi Blues Half Marathon and found out that I had waited too long.  Registration was technically already closed.  It had since reopened a bit for people who were left out of Dallas and Memphis due to the ice storms they had the month before, but being as I wasn’t a part of that group, I didn’t even try to register in that pack.  Not to mention, the costs were pretty high by that point and there were no guarantees of medals or even a shirt since you were registering ‘late’.  The ironic part is that I ended up being in Jackson on the same weekend anyway but for a completely unrelated matter.  That leads to the second failure.

For failing to sign up for Mississippi, I decided to sign up for Louisiana afterall even though I was originally thinking that I would wait a while before completing Louisiana, since this is my home state.   I ended up being in Jackson on the same weekend as their marathon because my mom got critically ill.  I actually was able to watch parts of the marathon from the 6th floor hospital window.  Now, to settle the nerves, mom did get better.  The doctors did a great job in treating her.  But she still needs help for a few weeks.  So that means I will now miss the Louisiana Half Marathon as well.  Two strikes barely two weeks into the year.  Amazing.

But I do still intend to try and meet that goal of running at least one race in every month of 2014.  So I signed up for the Chill in the Hills 5K in Mississippi to satisfy January’s goal.  It’s not a half marathon but it’ll be a start to hopefully better things to come going into the year.  I’ll probably do the Mississippi Blues next January and there will be plenty of other options in Louisiana later this year although I do like the Louisiana route and the Rock n Roll NOLA route.  I still intend to sign up for Little Rock in early March; although, both of these recent setbacks have made me glad that I have yet to sign up for Little Rock.  Now I understand why planning for these things can be hard.

So for now, I’ll do the little chilly run and the mambo early next month, and I’ll be ready just in time for race season come March-May.  At this point, I’m still considering the Little Rock run in early March, and then I’m considering one in Oklahoma in May.  I’ll probably look for one in Texas late in the year, and I know of one in the Florida panhandle that I’d be interested in that is usually in November.  There’s a big on in NOLA late in the year as well if I really want to go ahead and cross this state off my list, but I’m sure I’ll do both Mississippi and Louisiana and perhaps Alabama early in 2015.  I’m also looking around the Atlanta area for anything in late March, early April just in case I’m in the area.

Hope everyone has safe travels and trails for 2014.  Best wishes.