"Happiness does not come from doing easy work but from the afterglow of satisfaction that comes after the achievement of a difficult task that demanded our best." - Theodore I. Rubin

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Holidays and planning a new year, oh my! :)



Weather here in the Phoenix area is quite cold right now with highs in the 60's or high 50's..brrr for me! However it definitely makes us feel like we actually live somewhere with different seasons ;) I enjoy this time of the year with Thanksgiving in a couple days, my birthday a couple weeks later, Christmas time and then New Years! I always love baking, cooking and buying gifts for those I care about, so right now I am super excited for the next few weeks leading up to 2011.

Speaking of the new year, I am in the midst of deciding on which races to do and what my big focus will be. A fall marathon is definitely out of the question due to the Olympic Trials being in January of 2012. That leaves the option for a big marathon in the spring or early summer. I am not sure what I will do because I am still deciding on whether to do a marathon in January or not. There are so many great races in the spring that I want to do so I doubt I will do a marathon in the Feb/March time frame. As far as triathlon race plans, I'm currently working on which ones I want to do and fitting them around my running races. I think since I won't have a big fall marathon to gear up for I may have a *BIG* triathlon goal to go after in the fall, if things fall into place like I want them to. hehe, we'll see ;)-

With my 27th birthday upon me, I realize I'm not getting any younger and time flies faster every.single.year. I love talking to my friends and mentors who I look up to for advice, including my sis and mom. However sometimes I do best when I think and analyze things on my own and let my own gut make my decisions. After all, at the end of the day you have to do what YOU want, or you'll never have that passion that's so crucial to accomplishing your goals. I have certain lifetime dreams I wrote down about 3.5 years ago when my life changed drastically and I drove HOME from Durham, NC, my home for 5 of some of the best years of my life. Some of those dreams I've already accomplished. Some are future goals that I know won't happen for a few more years. Others are totally in my control and I'm kinda sick of putting them on the back burner.



I'm the type of person that when I want something, I go after it. Therefore I'm thinking I'll shut off all the outside comments, advice, ridicule, etc. and do what Sally wants. We must go after things that make us feel proud of ourselves, happy and smile. Yes there will be bumps in the road....but it's about the journey to get where you are hoping to go and when you've done it, will you be happy you did it, or if you don't, will you be mad you chose not to? Some of the best experiences of my life are things I decided to do on a whim or just simply did not "overthink" them...i.e. Going to Duke when I immediately fell in love with the campus on my visit, registering for the Cancun 1/2 Ironman when I'd never done a Tri and didn't own a bike, buying my 3 amazing dogs, registering for my first marathon and then qualifying for the '08 Trials, etc. A great thing my friend Cynthia told me once was "you learn by acting, by doing, you figure things out, and worse case scenario if things don't work, you can come back to where you started"...great advice :)

Anyway, I'm excited to finish off 2010 on a positive note, do local races here in AZ and continue to figure out my major goals for 2011 :) Good luck to you all as you race the rest of the year and happy holidays!!

Pics: One of the pics my friend and fabulous photographer took for me recently (Megan Powers-if interested in hiring her please contact me!) and me racing is courtesy Andy Dickinson from NYC marathon

Quote for today: "I think there is something, more important than believing: Action! The world is full of dreamers, there aren’t enough who will move ahead and begin to take concrete steps to actualize their vision."- W. Clement Stone

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