Is 2008 over already?

Happy New Year! It seems like they go so fast anymore! Does that make me sound old? When you are a kid, Christmas takes FOREVER to arrive and here it has come and gone along with the rest of the year. It seems like ages ago when in a brief moment of insanity I decided to sign up for the Disney half marathon and then decided I could do the full and registered for it too. Tick Tock. I am leaving a week from today for Mickey's house. 11 days from today I will be 40. 11 days from today I will have completed my first marathon. WOW.

A friend asked me if I was nervous about the race or just excited. Honestly, I can say I am not nervous at all just over-the-top excited. I have put in the miles, come back from the stress fracture, played catch up with the training schedule and am ready to run 26.2 around the World. I can do this. Really.

In looking back at my numbers from the year, I really can't believe that either. I ran 649 miles this year (that is equal to the distance from Atlanta to Miami!). In 2007 I ran ZERO. Three half-marathons, three triathlons and a handful of 5 and 10k races in 2008. Funny how much my life changed with the simple decision to start running. AND... without sounding like a Lifetime Fitness commercial, it all started there. If I had not signed up for the TEAM fitness class, I would have never run that 5k race last February and kicked this whole thing off. In retrospect, it is pretty amazing how that decision molded my whole year and hopefully years to come.

I used to be amazed by all the "TRI people" on my masters swim team. They would head out after a swim to go run or some even ran from their homes to the pool and then ran back home after the workout. I would think "who does that?". Now it doesn't seem so odd (not that I have really done that yet but it is no longer out of the realm of possibility). I am looking forward to becoming more involved in triathlons and can't wait to get in some workouts with the Peachtree Tri Club this year. Ironman 70.3 Augusta is looming and I can't wait! Now to just come up with a training schedule....

Have a great start to your 2009!