In case you don’t already know this about me, I am OBSESSED with resolutions.  I don’t know what it is about them, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE making them and coming up with a plan to follow them.  I usually make a lot of New Year’s resolutions, and this year was no exception.  Sure, when you have 20+ resolutions you don’t always accomplish them (well, basically you never accomplish them all), but if you go into it with that understanding, it’s fine. Some are always more important and become the ones I focus on.  And you can’t always be sure in January what the year will be like so maybe some will fall off the list as unimportant or others will be added.

After almost 2 weeks of thinking it through, I now have my final list of resolutions – broken down by category. 🙂 I’m going to share with you my resolutions from the running category (of course!). So, with no further ado, in order of importance, and with detailed commentary..

Amy’s 2014 Running Goals and Resolutions

1.  Complete a 1/2 Marathon in Under 2 Hours – My current PR in the 1/2 is 2 hours and 55 seconds, so you might think that breaking 2 hours should be no problem.  But, I fought hard for that time. It was back in 2010, and my goal then was to break 2 hours (what would have been about a 10 minute PR). I trained hard, and ran a great race, but just could not go any faster.  It was so disappointing.  I was in good shape then and probably could have scheduled another race immediately to try again, but I needed a mental break from the goal.  So now, it’s back on my list.  I have my eyes set on a race in late April, so if I do not make it then, I’ll have enough time to try again before the year is over.  I plan to sign up for the race and start training during the last week of January, so soon enough you should hear more about this goal.
2.  Keep up with my Running Blog – I’ve been having fun blogging over the last two months, and I’d like to keep it going. Reading other people’s running blogs is motivating, and I hope to keep finding good ones to follow. Also, given how much I love when I get comments on my posts, I’d like to start commenting on some of the other blogs I read.  My plan for this resolution is to post at least once a week, comment on someone else’s blog once a week, and to be following at least 12 other running blogs by the end of the year.
3.  Run a Marathon – Although I had my doubts during training and the first 5 minutes after the race, I’m now finding myself interested in doing another marathon.  The training and race itself were very challenging, and I’m looking forward to that challenge again. While I was training, my sister-in-law made me promise that I would run a marathon with her, so if she’s ready, I’d like to make good on my promise this year.  Also, I think we’ll be able to convince my other sister-in-law to join us!  This wouldn’t happen before the fall, so I don’t need to really even start thinking about training for quite a while. For now, my plan is to investigate race options and decide whether I’d still run a marathon this year if I’d be doing it solo. I’d like to figure that out by May.
4.  Keep a Running Journal – Not a lot of explanation needed for this resolution.  I got a journal for Christmas, and I plan to start using it when I start training for the 1/2 marathon.
5.  Join a Running Club – Sometimes when I talk about running, I get overexcited and people give me that look.  Like either I’m faking it or I’m crazy – I’m not sure which one they’d think is better, but I’m not faking it! So I’d like to seek out some other crazy running folks who won’t give me those looks!  (This in no way means that all you non-runners should stop give me these looks, I need them to keep me from going off the deep end.  Keep it up!) My plan for this one is to pick a local running club (there are a few I have in mind), figure out when they run, and what I need to do to sign up. I’d like to get signed up before the end of February.
6.  Volunteer – I want to do some sort of running related volunteering.  I know there are a lot of great opportunities for this, but I’m not sure what is right for me. My goal for the year is to investigate some options and see what is interesting to me.  Also, as part of this goal I want to volunteer at at least one race before the end of the year.
7.  Run 2014! (kilometers, that is) – Last year’s mileage goal was to run more than my biggest  year – 650 miles.  However, I passed 650 in June, so I kept resetting upwards until I settled on 900 miles. And I JUST made that goal.  Originally, for this year, I had my eye on breaking 1000 miles, but then I saw a run 2014 challenge.  You can run 2014 miles, 2014 km, or choose your own goal.  I chose 2014 km, which is close to 1000 miles!  I’m not sure whether I’ll get this or not, it’s quite a bit higher than my 2013 mileage, but I think it’ll help keep me motivated when I don’t have a race on the calendar. (P.S. you can check my progress on the sidebar)
8.  Beat Jeff’s 5k PR – At the end of the year, Jeff helped me beat my 5k PR at the Reindeer Run.  At the time we knew it was a long shot, and didn’t think it would be possible to shoot for his 5k PR.  But now that that’s behind us, I think it would be cool to be able to beat his 5k PR as well.  Which means faster than 25:54 min. (This is only 3 seconds faster than what we ran in December.) This one is last on the list because I have no real plan to focus on it.  I’m hoping that it’ll just work itself out.  In theory, if I can run the 1/2 in less than 2 hours, I should be able to beat this time in the 5k.

Well, there you have it – the great 2014 resolution list!  I know you’re eager to find out how it all turns out, so I’ll keep you updated…maybe monthly?