I tend to like to read blogs that sound like a conversation. A witty conversation. A fast paced, matter of fact, entertaining monologue about whatever random thought or story is on the writer’s mind. I wish that I could write like that but usually fear that I come as across sentimental and cheesy. And, if I’m honest, when talking about goals how could I not be?

And so, how does one write a year end summary of achievements without doing just that? Talking about goals and obstacles, hopes and fears, victories and defeats–all without coming across like a very special lifetime movie miracle. I think all I can do is keep it short and sweet. But first–I have a few more achievements that I must mention.

For my weight loss goals, I’ve been steadily chipping away at the last few pounds. My eating habits have drastically changed from a couple of years ago, and my workout schedule (for the past few months at least) has been pretty consistent. So this morning I stepped on the scale and saw the glorious 184 staring back at me. I had to step on and off a few times to confirm what I thought I was actually seeing–and it was! Soooo…(drumroll)….

	Biggest Loser Weigh 185 pounds – 40 pounds total weight loss.	65 Acquired 12/29/2009

I have officially reached my goal weight. Although, now that I’m here, there’s still a bit more I’d like to lose. My wife and I are still contemplating the P90X thing, so we’ll see.

Ok…this next one I kind of forgot about. The goal was basically to save money for property taxes at the end of the year. We don’t escrow our taxes, because we’d rather have the money earning interest through the year. The short version of this story is that stuff always comes up, but the Lord always provides.

	Security Blanket Save previous year’s amount for taxes.	75 Acquired 12/06/2009

Another achievement I actually finished about a month ago, but haven’t been able to figure out a good way to post it. The achievement was to memorize a chapter of scripture. I somehow feel the need to prove that I’m actually accomplishing these tasks and not just making them up. I thought about making a video, or typing it all out, but even still I don’t want to just regurgitate it. I need to actually hide it in my heart. So for this one, I think I’ll try this….the chapter was Proverbs 25. So if you read this blog and you actually know me, ask me for a verse sometime. There are 28 verses…just pick one and ask me for it. Hopefully I’ll be able to say it. And if not, feel free to ridicule me mercilessly.

	119:11 Memorize a chapter of scripture.	50 Acquired 11/13/2009

So, now that it’s the end of the year and people are talking about 2010 resolutions, I’m still contemplating mine from this year. I learned quite a bit striving after a handful of goals that I made for myself a year ago. For one thing, I realized how much time it takes to really get somewhere. Running a marathon doesn’t take a few hours. It takes a few months. And losing weight doesn’t take 20 minutes a day, 3 days a week. It takes 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

And I learned that some things are a lot harder than I thought. I don’t know if it’s our culture, our generation, or both–but we all seem to think that we can experience by observation. That we can absorb the experiences of what we see and live vicariously through any medium other than our own lives. Not that I’m saying that we all need to go run a marathon or climb a mountain–but rather that in our reality TV and Wii simulated lives it doesn’t hurt to go out and try real life every once and awhile.

People have started to ask if I will make a new list for next year. The answer is probably not. I’m really not as type A as people seem to think that I am. Having a list was fun, but I quickly grew tired of having something so intangible directing daily decisions. I still want to run and stay in shape and memorize scripture–but I will continue to do so without an official list. So for now, adiós. And I hope your new year’s resolutions will be as adventurous as mine.

	Forget Me Not Review this list in Decemeber 2009.	20 Acquired 12/29/2009

Most runners like to do a post-run race report. For this post, the race report is fairly short. It’s everything after the marathon that is worthy of a lengthy blog post.

The actual marathon was what it was. The first 8 miles were great. I ran at a comfortable pace, taking it easy on the up hills, and taking advantage of the down hills. After mile 8 my IT band started to show signs of weakness. I struggled through the next 5 miles until mile 13 when my knee decided to call it quits. I couldn’t run more than 1 step without doubling over in pain and hobbling to the side. I walked the next 5 miles–pain with every step. Eventually the pain was bearable enough that I could shuffle step, swinging my right leg wide to keep the knee from bending, and actually run for 100 yards at a time. I finished in 5:28:12. Key word being finished.

After the race I immediately went to the runner’s tent and ate a banana and drank a few cups of water. More on that minor detail later. I then went straight to the chiropractor’s tent. They had about a dozen tables and workers taking care of all kinds of issues. My knee was actually only a minor issue compared to the sharp pain in the middle of my back. I’ve been going to a chiropractor for the past few weeks which has helped, but after 26.2 miles, my back was in agony. My designated chiropractor examined me and instantly found the spot on my back. “This HAS to be it”, he said. And he was right. He did some other twists and pops and came back to my back. I took a deep breath and slowly let it out….and -crack- as he smashed my spine back into place.

I cannot describe the relief that I felt.

I found my wife, our son, and our friends soon after that. We took some post race pictures with our medals and headed to the car. We piled in and started the long drive home. Now–about that post race banana.

The whole ride home was an interesting mix of feelings. I felt cold. The race had been cold and windy. And even a little rainy. I had gloves, but only a short sleeve shirt. Being forced to walk the middle portion of the race–the portion around the lake where the wind picks up and carries the cold air to all of the runners–must have lowered my body temperature to a point that wouldn’t soon recover. I was also sleepy. I had a hard time keeping my eyes open. Don’t worry, my gracious wife was doing the driving. And mostly I felt nauseous. I was beginning to think that banana was a bad idea. A very bad idea. It was all I could do to hold it in until we dropped off our friends and made it home.

Interestingly enough the last mile home was similar to the last mile of the marathon. The whole time I was thinking, you’re almost there, you can make it. For the marathon, it was to keep going. To not stop moving. For the car ride, it was to hold in that which my stomach was ready to let out.

We pulled into the driveway and before I could take it any more I opened the car door, leaned out, and let loose the most powerful projectile vomit I have ever experienced. My legs still hurt to bad to step out of the car so I let myself fall out of the car onto my hands and knees where my body continued to forcefully remove the banana/water mixture from my stomach. My wife ran over to comfort me and after a few minutes, I was better. It’s amazing how your body will respond to something unwanted. And how you feel once it heals itself.

I was still a bit cold and still had no appetite so I took a hot bath, hot shower, and crawled into bed. I rested for an hour and a half before getting ready for the Christmas party we had that night. Yep, that’s right–after 26.2 miles, and a few hours of misery, I put on my happy face and went to hang out with a group from our church. I slowly regained my appetite–finding solace in sprite and salty lime tortilla chips. We went home and I sat on the couch, a long day finished.

The past couple of days has been a slow and steady recovery. My IT band has still not completely loosened up, but it’s getting close. I will probably take it easy on the running for awhile and stick to some cross training.

In other achievement news, the last couple of weeks leading up to the marathon (and the marathon itself) were great for my weight loss goals. So, without further delay:

	Hold My Calls Run a marathon.	100 Acquired 10/13/2009
	Almost There Weigh 190 pounds – 35 pounds total weight loss.	40 Acquired 10/12/2009

I still have a few more achievements for the year. One that is finished, but yet to be posted. And one that is definitely not possible at this point. I think there are some others in there too that I should start looking at…

Ok, so I hate to try to combine multiple topics into one blog post, but I’m also not ambitious enough to do separate posts for all of these either. So bear with me as I try to make them all seem somehow related.

So you may remember me mentioning a couple of weeks ago that my 15 miler was less than ideal. Pretty painful in fact. Something I didn’t mention was that around mile 8 I had a extremely sharp pain right in the middle of my back. Not good. I’ve heard of runners going to the chiropractor and figured if I ever had a sign of telling me I should go that was probably it.

I found a chiropractor that also does sports/physical therapy that my insurance covered, so I went in. A quick x-ray showed a nice little curve right at the spot where I felt the pain. Actually, to be honest, I nearly freaked out when I saw it. I didn’t know that it was normal for people’s spines to not be perfectly straight all the time, but the doc seemed fine with it, so I played along. We also talked about my IT Band and how that’s also normal for runners. Or at least normal for people who find running for hours at a time to be both recreational and productive.

So a few cracks, bends, stretches, and knuckle massages later, I was on my way. Now with my new rejuvenated self, I was ready to tackle the 20 miler the following weekend.

Compared to the 15 miles from the week before 20 miles was fre-ack-in’ awesome. On the previous run I figured out that I didn’t need the carbs and energy as much as I just needed food. I was hungry! To fight my ravenous gargling stomach I used an old strategy from back when I used to go hiking at Enchanted Rock…trail mix! In this case, sweet cajun trail mix to be exact. I found that the energy gels were great but didn’t last very long. The trail mix is a nice way to just get food in to not make me feel so stinkin’ hungry. I used this “fuel” again for a 12 miler last weekend and it went beautifully. I think I officially have my race day strategy in place.

In other unrelated topics, for Thanksgiving we all went down to the family ranch in Jarrell Texas and then on to San Antonio for my 10 year high school reunion. The reunion was a lot of fun, and a lot of awkward. You know the feeling when you’re in the grocery store and you think you recognize someone, but you’re not sure…and then if you do remember them, you’re not sure if they remember you? Take that, and then multiply it by the other hundred people in the room, and that’s what it was like. And I definitely got a “Hey buddy!” pretty early on into it. It’s ok, I didn’t remember his name either.

So yep, pretty fun little weekend. I got to eat a lot of food and then go run and burn it all off. Here are some of the magical moments captured…

Carb loading before 12 miles. Ok…I didn’t eat all the waffles.

Just hanging out with the bull on the ranch.

Ok this picture was actually pretty random. As if you couldn’t tell from the non-shoulder hugging awkward standing positions from everyone.

Boom. Boom. Pow.