Looking Back / Moving Forward

   2013 comes to an end today. It's amazing how quickly a year goes by. I'll be honest, I was looking at my posts from the past year and had completely forgotten I wrote out goals for 2013. COMPLETELY forgotten. So, it should be pretty interesting to look back and see how I did on them. Let's take a look, shall we?

GOAL 1: Maintain a healthy balance of lifestyle outside of running/swimming/biking. 

I think I did an OK job with this, but I'm not exactly sure how I can fairly judge it. It's funny because many people have resolutions to work out MORE, while I'm trying to back off a bit. Having a sprained ankle helped with this a lot, since I wasn't able to run for about two months. Grade B.

GOAL 2: Take a vacation without running a race while there.  

Technically, I did this twice. My family went to Albion, Nebraska in April to visit my grandmother. Not only did I not race, I didn't even run. It was really cold, windy and snowy at times, and I didn't bring the appropriate gear. And I say that I "technically" took two vacations without racing because Dudley and I also went to Maine in August and I didn't race, though I was supposed to. I had to drop out because of my ankle. Maine was amazing though, and I'm so glad we went up there - which we wouldn't have if not for the race.  Grade B+
GOAL 3: Read 52 books in 2013. 

Totally nailed this one. Finished my 52nd book last week. Grade A+
GOAL 4: Sub 2:00 Half Marathon.

This one I think I could have done if I didn't sprain my ankle. I PRed in the half marathon at New Orleans in February (2:06). I think if I could have built on that throughout the year, I would have been able to break 2:00 in a Fall race. Oh well. Maybe in 2014.  Grade B

GOAL 5: Learn to knit. 

Total fail. Didn't even try. Grade F
GOAL 6: More music. 

Total fail on this, too. The intent is there, but it just seems like time gets away from me. I actually had more gigs booked this year than last year, but two were cancelled. Sigh. Grade D
GOAL 7: Get out more.

This one is a work in progress, but I think Dudley and I got out more this year than last. We also saw more concerts. However, we could do a lot more. We're total homebodies. Grade C
GOAL 8: Give back.
Did well on this from a financial standpoint, as with the help from many of you, I was able to raise $6,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. (THANK YOU!! ) Dudley and I also have several other charities we support. I'd like to do more actual volunteer work though.  Grade B

   As far as my "run a half-marathon or further in every state" plan goes, well, I only hit two new states in 2013 - Louisiana and California. I was supposed to get four, but Maine and West Virginia got postponed because of my ankle. 

My sad, still largely blank, map.

Moving on to 2014, I really only have two goals:

GOAL 1: Take a photo every day. 
I got this idea from the T-Rex Runner blog. I love photography, but generally only take photos at big events, rather than documenting every day life. And you know what? There's a lot of cool things in every day life that I'm missing. So therefore - a photo every day. And I'm going to post them so get ready for a lot of random photos - most likely of my dogs.

Goal 2: Survive Ironman Chattanooga.
That's it. I don't care about my time. Would it be nice to be all "I'm gonna kick ass at this race" and what not?  Sure, but I also need to be realistic. I have no freakin' idea what I'm doing or how I'm going to get through the next nine months (yes, it's only nine months away), and to be honest, I'm completely terrified. I KNOW it's going to be hard and it's going to hurt a lot. But I have to admit, I'm kind of looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to pushing myself to a new level and trying to accomplish something I never thought I'd be able to do.

So what about you? Have you set your 2014 goals yet? Are you doing something that terrifies you? If not, why?

Wishing everyone a wonderful 2014!!