Hey, y’all! I stopped doing New Year Resolutions when I was in high school because I realized it was just an excuse for me to make statements that I had no intention to complete them. So, every year, I make goals for all areas of my life. I actually created an excel doc (I know, I’m pretty nerdy) a couple of years ago to keep track of my goals. Each tab holds a new year’s goal with a column for all areas of my life. I look back over what I’ve accomplished or postponed, over the years to see how I’ve progressed. Today, I wanted to share my running goals to hold myself accountable for the year.
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PHOTOS BY: DORESE JENAE PORTRAITS
FINALLY RUN A FULL MARATHON
I know I say this every year, but I think this might be the year. I’ve been trying to run one since I turned 30. When I moved to DC for grad school, I had every intention to run one but it never worked out because my schedule was hectic! That’s one of the reasons why I gained so much weight because I stopped running. The way last year went, made me want to shoot for the moon with everything I do because you just never know when your last day on this earth will be. With the pandemic still looming over 2021, I’m not sure how plausible this will be. I don’t know if I want to run a full marathon without a crowd cheering me on. Even if it looks different, I definitely want to run one closer to the end of the year.
GET MY MILE TIME DOWN TO 9 MINUTES FLAT
The fact that I was able to get down to a 9:45 minute is crazy let alone 9 minutes. If you told me 10 years ago that I would be at this minute/mile, I would have laughed. My goal then was just to hit 10:30! Is it absolutely necessary that I run a 9 minute mile? Nope. But knowing that this something that I can achieve will mean the world to me. ALSO, I will officially be a runner, in my head. And, yes, I realize that you don’t have to hit a certain mile time to be considered a runner.
RUN A HALF IN EVERY STATE
This is a lofty goal that will not get done this year but it’s something that I would like to do before I turn 40 and would like to start this year, barring it’s possible with COVID. It was actually inspired by my brother- who hates running but has a natural talent for it- when I called him to share that I’d hit a personal record (PR) mile time. He asked me if I was trying to become the fastest half marathoner? I instantly laughed because I honestly don’t think once I achieve a 9-minute mile I want to get any faster. This conversation did get me thinking about setting a goal for myself with half marathons. I mean how cool would it be to a) run a race in every state and b) brag about it?! LOL, Okay, so I’m not much of a bragger but it is definitely an interesting fact that I can pull out at dinner parties, you know when we can have these again.
INCORPORATE MORE WEIGHT LIFTING
Last year, I started incorporating heavier weights into my workouts when I’m not running. I really saw an improvement in my runs but I also loved the toneness that was occurring in my body that I hadn’t seen since I was doing gymnastics. Seeing a little improvement makes me want to be more intentional about lifting weights. When fall it, I fell off of my weight training and my running took a hit as a result. Now that I’m in my own space again, I’m happy to get back to it.
ARE YOU A RUNNER? WHAT ARE YOUR RUNNING GOALS FOR THE YEAR?
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