Last October, when I started this crazy journey, Coach Jen and I talked about goals. After some thinking I set four goals for the year, to recap...
1. Finish the 2010 Chicago Marathon, in under 6 and a half hours.
2. Lose weight, specifically an average of 1-1.5lbs per week for a total of 100 lbs by race day.
3. Create a better self image, instill confidence in myself.
4. Raise money and awareness for the American Heart Association. I would like to raise $5,000.
I thought I'd take a moment to update the progress on my goals and share a few thoughts.
Obviously I haven't had a chance at goal #1 yet...but it's coming. Typing that makes me both excited and a little scared, but I feel like I can do it!
Let's dive in shall we? First, goal #2...this is done. I hit the 100lb mark on day 270. I've lost a total of
106.3lbs since October 14, 2009. Currently, the plan is to lose until my body
tells me it's happy! Heck, I could be there now. I doubt it, but I'm open minded.
I still find I have a hard time putting how I feel about this into words, though I've tried. I think it has finally fully set in and I keep coming back to the same word to describe it...happy. I'm so happy I did it.
Goal #3...well, this one is hard to quantify. Wearing smaller clothes,
being able to run longer distances, running two 1/2 marathons so far and seeing a physical change has
helped. Being told what I'm doing inspires people used to embarrass and confuse me. I didn't know why or how people could find anything I was doing to be inspirational or motivating. I'm adjusting to it, and still humbled when I hear from people. Over all, I think I'm more confident. And I think that qualifies as the goal being met, with the concession that I could work on this some more. So, done.
And yesterday, goal #4 can be crossed off the list as I hit the $5,000
fund raising goal! Thank you to everyone who donated, showed their
support and helped spread the word about what a wonderful cause the American Heart Association is!
I'm ecstatic to hit each of these three goals! A year ago, had you asked me if I could do all 4, I would have probably said maybe. Depending on the day, I might have said, hell no! I think I surprised myself through all of this, and am glad I sent Dave that email.
But here's the thing...with each
one I can still do more. I can still lose some more weight, I can
still work on the self confidence thing and I think I could work at raising more funds for the American Heart Association. I don't want to stop, I'd like to see how much more I can raise by race day.
This morning I got this video in an email from Jayme from AHA.
I was moved and thought I'd share it.
With that said, I'm not going to stop, on any of my goals. Yes, I hit the mark, but on each one I have room for improvement. I'm going to continue to work hard, to try and build confidence and try to continue to raise funds. I'm not going to officially up the ante on them, but will continue to see what I can do.
And then, in 36 days...I'm going to try and cross goal #1 off the list. I can't think of a better way to close out a year of change than that!
More later!
Filed under: American Heart Association, awesome, Coach Jen, confidence, cubicle dad, donations, fund raising, health, heart, marathon, running, support, team cubicle, training, weight loss
Tags: American Heart Association, awesome, Coach Jen, confidence, cubicle dad, donations, fund raising, health, heart, life, marathon, running, support, team cubicle, training, weight loss
Awesome and congratulations as I have said before! If I could offer insight on a couple things I would be grateful. Personally I started at 510 lbs have dropped to 165 then increased to 350 and headed back down to around 305 right now with a coal of 215. The reason for all the variances.... lack of goals. What I read here is VERY familiar- I quit smoking ran several shorter races, two half marathons, then Chicago... then fell FLAT from an inspirational standpoint- gained weight over the winter and ran less and less.
PLEASE consider putting something else on the schedule to stay focused. When 10-10-10 is over, the blog fades a bit and the complements begin to become less frequent where you are is were most people are, just in the stream of every day life- keep the motivation alive, plug in to running clubs/groups, online communities, etc.
Being as intentional about life after the marathon is MORE important that how intentional you have been about your training, diet and motivation to this point. If we are not careful I have proven to myself we can slip right back- for me 30 years of bad habits were not