2018 Word: Challenge

Every year, my friend Jim Donovan asks people to pick a word to sum up what they want to invite into their lives for the upcoming year. For 2018, my word is challenge. 2017 was a challenging year for me for a couple of reasons, but those challenges were not necessarily ones I chose to take or I didn't face them head on. In 2018, I want to give myself challenges to work on throughout the year and make a more conscious effort to address the challenges that I don't choose in better ways.

So, what challenges have I picked out for myself?

Well, you are reading one now. For several years, I have tried (and failed) to start a blog on any topic. One of the challenges I am giving myself this year is to blog once a week. What will this blog be about you ask? That is challenge number two. I want to run more races so a goal for 2018 is to run a timed race that is 5k or longer each month. I plan on using this blog to keep myself accountable to my training schedule, racing once a month and, maybe, I'll share some other fun stuff as well. I also signed up for...THE KING CRAB CHALLENGE!

This is a series of races in Maryland and it will help me cross off May, June and October for my timed races. There is also some pretty serious running bling that comes along with completing the challenge (a 7in, two pound medal!). In May, I will run the Fredrick Nutjob--which is a 5K followed by a half marathon. The Baltimore 10-miler is in June and I am planning on running the Baltimore Marathon in October. I also am signed up to run the Cherry Blossom 10-miler in April. Lots of racing, but I am definitely looking forward to the races and sharing how my training is going.

There are a few other challenges I am working on for this year, but I will talk about those when I get them moving.