If you know me, you know I like to make lists. A list of things to do. A list of countries I’ve been to. A list of baseball stadiums visited. And of course a list of things to accomplish in 2018.
Last week, after our run, my friend asked if I had written any blog posts recently. And the answer was a hard no. This has been on my to do list for months now (or apparently a year since my last post was from June 2017–yikes!). And now that it’s past the mid-year point, I figured this was a good time to check it off.
But what to write about. My last marathon? My trip to Japan? A thought-provoking book I read recently? All of the above? Again, since it’s July, and we are halfway through 2018, I figured maybe I should look back on my goals I had written down back in January and go from there.
As with most people (or maybe only some people?), I started 2018 with a list of things I wanted to achieve this year. Most of these goals are probably not surprising, as they focus on running and traveling. However, there is one thing not on this list, and that is to keep writing. But by working through these goals, I hope to accomplish more of that by giving you all regular updates. The hope is I don’t wait another year to write my next post.
So let’s see how I’m doing so far.
Break 3:15 in the marathon
In January I was right smack in the middle of marathon training, and went on to run the Tokyo Marathon in February. Going into that race, my current PR was 3:18:47 from September 2016. I had doubts going into the race, which is normal. Did I train enough? Am I too old? What if traveling so far messes me up completely? However, I also knew that I was in pretty good shape. My workouts were on point, and I managed a 5k PR the month before. I do plan to write a longer post about the actual race, but I did manage to get a huge PR, and finished with a time of 3:15:39. I technically didn’t achieve my goal. But I was super pleased with my performance, so I can’t be upset at all. Not even a little bit. Plus, I plan to run the Detroit Marathon in October. So there is still a chance for a sub-3:15 marathon.
Break 1:33 in the half marathon
I have not accomplished this yet. I had a really good attempt back in January leading up to the Tokyo Marathon. I finished in a time of 1:33:39, only 24 seconds off of my current PR of 1:33:15, which was from March 2015 on a super hilly course. I’m optimistic that I can beat this time. Hopefully I can make it happen this year.
Run 2018 miles in 2018
As of the end of June, I’ve run a total of 953.6 miles. Which seems pretty great. It’s the most I’ve done at this point in the year since 2015. I am slightly behind schedule with only 47.3% of the 2018 miles completed. But I’m only 55.4 behind my mid-year goal. I am confident I can make that up easily in the next 6 months. Especially by throwing a marathon in the mix.
Run a new race in a new state
Check. Back in April I met my friend Pam, and we ran the Go! St. Louis Half Marathon. It was 6 weeks after Tokyo, so I definitely lost some fitness. And the weather really wasn’t ideal for April (winter temps for real?). But that didn't matter. It was a fun weekend of running, exploring St. Louis, eating BBQ, and watching baseball.
Run more shorter races (1 mile, 5ks)
This would be a negative. Guess I better get on this one…
Travel to 2 new countries
Halfway there. I finally got myself to Japan in February. That was a long time in the making, which also warrants it’s own blog post, which will be written eventually. Now to pick another country to hit up this year. Maybe Mexico? Or somewhere in Central America? Throw any good suggestions my way.
Travel to 3 new states
One out of three. Missouri became my 30th state in April. I will be checking off Michigan in October when I go run the Detroit Marathon. So I just need one more. Let me know if anyone is up for a weekend trip!
Cook more
I would say that I’ve accomplished this, but I can also continue to work on it. Just by the nature of living in SF, I’ve learned to not rely on Seamless (or other similar delivery options). So I have definitely been cooking more nights a week. Although my cooking is probably pretty boring. It’s really a constant rotation of rice and pasta with appropriate sides. But I have a new-ish cookbook that I need to experiment with. Progress.
Read 30 books
I’m doing pretty great on this front. As of a week ago, I’ve read 17 books, which is 56% through my reading challenge on Goodreads. My only hiccup are the Game of Thrones books. Man they are long. I have to read some shorter books to average it out. I’ve also been purposeful in what I’ve been reading and choosing diverse topics and authors. I would like to write about some of those books. I’ll add it to my list of things to do.
Save a certain amount of money each month
As some of you know, I decided to spend a lot of my savings to travel the world for an extended period of time. Now that I’ve been back in the real world for almost a year, I need to get back on track. Fortunately, this has been relatively easy. I set up monthly automatic transfer of a set amount to my savings account. Looks like I should be able to meet my goal by the end of the year. But I do think I can do more regular check-ins on my finances to make sure things are looking good across all financial aspects.
Do something new
No dice on this one. I should probably brainstorm a few new things to try. I could try surfing, or parasailing, or scuba diving. The choices. If you have any cool ideas of something new to try, let me know.
Well that's it for now. Stay tuned for updates.
