New Year, New Goals

2010 is in the books folks. From my perspective it was an outstanding year on all fronts: Sarah, Work, and Running. Sarah is doing very well in her third year of medical school and I continue to be very proud of her. Sarah provides the balance for me and keeps me grounded. She loves me dearly and I love that she is always honest with me when I'm off course. We added our little man, Myles, to the equation and he has been a great addition to our family. I've always wanted a dog and to have one has just met every single expectation I ever had. I love him. I talk often about loving my work in Housing and Residence Life at IUPUI. I absolutely love what I am tasked with doing on a daily basis. At it's core, I have an opportunity each day to be a "plus one" or a "day maker" for another person. In addition, I am able to work with a lot of "plus one" type co-workers and that's a real blessing. Finally, running was great this year. I achieved the first two goals on my running list for 2010: Stay Healthy and Enjoying Running. I finished the year with 1863.5 miles run for the year. Not too bad. I also competed in my first triathlon, won a 5K race, and ran a very nice four miler in late August.

Since my comeback to running on 1/1/2006 I have had the opportunity to run 8238.2 miles, have run a 2:48 marathon and a 4:55 mile, run on the Empire Runners Cross Country Team, and ran in over 40 races. However, what I've most enjoyed was starting and coaching the Walk Jog Run Club at Sonoma State, coaching the Analy High School Cross Country Team, Working at The Running Company (now BlueMile), and providing coaching advice for my friends. Truly, part of being a runner is sharing with others how to run. Pre-2006 running was all about Josh trying to run fast. Post-2006 running has been about sharing it with others and realizing that I'm lucky to be able to get out there and run. Not everyone can do it and it can be taken in a second. So...here are my preliminary goals for 2011:

1. Stay Healthy
2. Enjoy Running
3. Run 1500+ Miles
4. Share Running w/ Others
5. Run well in Races (not decided which one's yet)

Over the next few days I have to really decide what type of racing I want to do this year. Last year I had success with running shorter races (Half-Marathons and below). I've run four marathons and I've been injured after each one with the type of injury being more severe and taking more time to heal. Yet, I feel that itch again. This time, I'm considering running a 50K (31 mile race) called Dances with Dirt in Gnaw Bone, Indiana in May. It's a 31 mile trail race through the woods. My wife says, "hell no," and I understand why. After my last marathon I was a pill in the six months it took to recover and actually be able to train again. So...I have to consider the following question: Am I willing to risk possibly being injured to run this 50K? That's the question I have to consider over the next few days.

Thanks to those who read my blog. My goal is to write a couple times a week. If you would like some free running advice, feel free to hit me up. Happy running to you.