Setting goals and reaching them

Early last week, I set a goal of running an entire 5k event without walking. Several days later, I accomplished it. I must be winning at life these days. I thought I would be mostly by myself (among hundreds of runners) at this race on Sunday morning, but I was wrong. I met up with several friends, which made things fabulous. Cindy was there to hold my jacket and take photos and be generally encouraging. She is very good at this stuff! Here I am right before the race starts. I am not sure if I am laughing or talking or what I'm doing. It looks a little like I've been hit or the wind is blowing me backwards and throwing open my jacket - oh, the excitement! It's like a docu-drama, my life.

John is a co-worker and the instigator of a lot of smack talk event registrations. He is the reason I am standing in the chilly weather on a Sunday morning when I should be at church. I set this goal for the next 12 months and within minutes, I got an email saying, "Hey, are you running in the Capital Pursuit this weekend?"

Being the cheeky competitor I am, I legged it to the registration table and threw down my double sawbuck for a chance to prove myself to...um, well, mostly just to myself. I do realize, people, that no one is keeping score but me.

Here we are at the beginning of the race. John later wrote, "I wonder if the 0800 me knew how the rest of the day me was going to feel?" And I could relate. I spent the rest of the day trying to stay awake. I met up with friends, made a new friend (I don't remember her name!), got to watch the children's race and cheered in the 10-mile runners. Then I walked 2 blocks and went to mass. I don't think anyone noticed, but I almost fell asleep toward the end. Twice.

In this photo, they've just announced the release of a pack of wild and hungry tigers, lions, monkeys, housecats and elephants one block behind us.

I am smiling in this photo, which was taken by Cindy, my professional photographer. Aren't these photos great? If I had taken this, I assure you it would be blurry and useless. My mom noticed that I smile a lot in these photos. Sure, I have some nervous energy but I'm also pretty happy. I never thought I would do this sort of thing. I get up early, I walk, I run, I swim. I'm unidentifiable. Just this morning, I was browsing for a programmer on Careerbuilder and I came across this bullet point (not kidding) in a resume out of Seattle. I think it sums up self, so I did the old copy & paste to share with all of you:

I learned that I have excellent personal skills.

Mind you, it doesn't say I have excellent interpersonal skills. Just personal skills. And I assure you, I make this promise to you, I really mean it when I say my personal skills rock. My skills are so personal you're probably unaware of them, so I want a t-shirt or a cake that shouts the news to the world.