When I started thinking about this blog, I started searching pictures on the web to celebrate 1,000 miles. Little did I know, the absolute most perfect picture would be literally handed to me on a silver platter.
Our good, awesome friend Dave, painted this picture of me at the end of the Dayton Air Force marathon with some extra special details. Such a cool Mile Marker to remember 2012 with!
My last ten miles came as a little surprise. My goal was to get all the miles in by Kevin's birthday on December 22, but we got so busy with Christmas fun that I was a day later than that. I headed out at mile 990 thinking I'd do a quick 5 miles and finish up the next day, but the weather was warm and sunny. I made the decision early on to start taking every neighborhood turn I could to rack up the miles and make the judgement call whether to push on when I crossed my typical midway point. When I got to Liberty-Fairfield road, I was already at 6 miles so of course I had to finish! Christmas was in the air, people were smiling and happy, and most importantly, it felt great. I finished in the dark with the glow of Christmas lights and as Kevin poured me a beer, I shared my exciting news....1,000 miles! I went on to collect 14 more before the year ended and was also pleasantly surprised to see that I had actually accumulated almost FIFTY EIGHT extra miles through out the year on my Garmin by always logging at least .2 - .8 on each run and never physically writing it down. Yay me!
Onto my new goals. It took some time. Running all year has really made me a better person and runner in so many ways that I need and want to continue with that again. So my running goal will be 1200 miles. I have two planned long runs, an April Marathon right here on my favorite bike path where I train, and a later 50k - 32 miles, also local but very technical terrain. Down into a gorge. (?!) I will plan my fall running around those results. My ultimate goal is a true 50 mile ultra.
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| Yet another gift (car magnet to replace the two I lost in the car wash)...Peggy, you're AWESOME!!! |
My second goal, yep, this is where I up the ante. Remember my mantra? If your dreams don't scare you, they're not big enough! I have been extremely happy this year. Many good things happening, many good people met, many good times to be had, so I want to pay it back. My goal is to donate a dollar for every mile run. (Keep track by following the chart to your right) (And feel to ooooh and aaaah over the chart that took two entire planning periods to figure out!)
To make all that donating monetarily feasible for me, knowing that I have money just dripping out of my checkbook into Lakota West High School for band and SOON college, I will donate as often as twice a month to my charities of choice. I look forward to posting my results on this one! This month, my donation has already surpassed my mileage due to a special circumstance, I hope to keep all my giving very local. I thank Ann Curry, the reporter, for starting her 26 days of Kindness in honor of the Sandy Hook children and adults. Their story touched me deeply. Ann's 26 Acts of Kindness
