2010 – 2009 in Review, Goals, and Plans

Thinking back, there was a lot of crappiness in 2009. I’ll get to that over the course of this post.

2009 Goals
1. Run a sub-18 5k – Failed. Didn’t even come close. Was going to make the 5K push following the marathon stuff, but the whole running thing didn’t work out.
2. Run a sub 1:30 Half Marathon (should be cake) – Failed. Was sick for the first, and injured for the second.
3. Run a sub 3:10 Full Marathon (Boston Qualification) – Failed. 3:16. No good reason. Just didn’t have it. Abbreviated training due to injury?
4. Go to France – Didn’t happen.
5. Continue Japanese (102 and 201) – Dropped 102.
6. Revisit NYC, go to the top of the Empire State Building – Went back to NYC, but didn’t go up ESB.
7. Bike 100 miles in a day – Didn’t happen.
8. Run 1000 miles – Should have been cake; was on pace for 1500 before injury.

Sooo…. I didn’t accomplish a single goal I had set last year (Note: I’ve never not accomplished a goal in one of these posts). Luckily, I did accomplish a life goal, which I hadn’t anticipated: Started a company… Phew! I did something this year.

2009 Highlights
January 22 – Dropped Japanese.
February 10 – After not receiving raises for the year, my company got rid of free drinks.
February 15 – Turned 27.
Winter – Won club racing series for my age group.
May 5 – Joined [and quickly left] Twitter.
April 5 – Ran an incredible (1:04) Cherry Blossom 10-Miler.
April 8 – Was told I could no longer bring my bicycle in the office.
May 12 – Biked around NYC.
May 17 – Ran a sick half marathon.
May 30 – Canoed the Rappahanock.
June – Bachelor party in Las Vegas.
June – Helped Lamkens move to Wilmington, NC.
June – Got another arcade machine.
July 26 – Ran the San Fran Marathon (promise, I’ll blog about the trip at some point).
August 26 – Bachelor party in New Orleans.
Summer – Won club racing series for my age group.
September 13 – Ran an injured half marathon.
October 6 – Amber left us.
October 9 – Dad retired.
September 25 – Emily was born.
September and November – Emily and Jade diagnosed with cancer.
November and December – Started my own company.
December 11 – Was told I have high blood pressure.
December – Visit NC.
December 30 – Joined a gym.

2009 Notes
– Ran 953 miles (up from 857), biked 670 (from 472), swam 3 (from 2).
– Gained 5 pounds.
– Didn’t get a raise, but my cube got even sweeter.
– Sold the rip and flip Integra.
– Spent a lot of time working on the Civic.
– Didn’t have an XBOX fail.
– Refreshed my SCUBA cert.
– Trashed my hamstrings.

2010 Goals
– Get running again.
– Run a sub-3:10 marathon.
– Visit another country (France, Japan, Italy, and Thailand are on the table).
– Bike 100 miles in a day.
– Bike 1000 miles.
– Get the Civic back to fully streetable.
– SCUBA dive.
– Go on an epic bike ride or car trip.
– Work remotely for an extended period of time.
– Begin learning Spanish.
– Bench press 225.
– Cook more.

So 2009… A lot of failed goals, two kids with cancer, homes are still unaffordable, Mom had two major surgeries… 2010 is sure to be better!

Comments

mjc504

January 2, 2010

Mike, your goals are commendable & I wish you the best….I too hope 2010 is a better year in a lot of ways…..
cd's nuts

January 2, 2010

Will be in Italy and France if you want to meet up.

http://wiki.derecola.com/index.php?title=2010_F1_in_Europe
Mike

January 3, 2010

If we do Italy I’d be tagging along on a work trip of hers… so we’re not flexible on those dates. France is a possibility. Perhaps we’d do the F1 thing, fewer days in Belgium, and then shoot over to France, maybe still being there for a couple days when you arrive.
cd's nuts

January 3, 2010

When we go from Belgium to France is somewhat up in the air, depending on what we find to do. I’m not sure we can spend a week in Brussels, so we might know a couple days off and add that to France. I have somewhat of a fascination with the French countryside, so I feel like we might spend a few days there. All depends on the research that has yet to be conducted.
mjc504

January 3, 2010

If I can offer an opinion, I don’t think you need more than 2 days to see Brussels; a nice one hour trip by train to Brugge (Bruges; it’s spelled a number of ways)from Brussels is a nice old town.
Mike

January 3, 2010

Ya, we just took a look at things… Maybe fly in Thursday to Brussels, hang out two days, F1, drive to France via countryside/wine country (wait, isn’t that the whole country?), and then ending in Paris. We’re looking at 8/19 – 9/1 or so. Airfare gets quite a bit more expensive as summer comes along… 700 now, 1200 then.
cd's nuts

January 3, 2010

I just realized I never updated that calendar for the Spa date change. It’s actually a week later, so we’ll do Spa at the end of Belgium. There’s a possibility we’d do France first, but a lot depends on where we can fly into on our miles. They are changing the miles required to fly in a week, so I’ll let you know before then.