Nashville was hot and humid.  It was 103 degrees during the days we were there with 93% humidity.   So I knew I had to get up early if I was serious about getting this done.

I got up at 6 AM on Friday, despite the fact that we had each drank a pitcher of peach/white wine Sangria the night before and the room had been spinning as I passed out fell asleep.  It would have been easy to use being intoxicated the night before as an excuse.  Very easy.  But I remembered a wise man telling me that he had one of the best runs of his life hung over so I figured it was worth a try.

I started running as the sun was coming up.  It was tough to get going but by about the beginning of mile 3 I was getting in the groove.  It didn’t seem quite as hot anymore and I knew I would be able to do it, no matter how slow and sweaty I was.  No matter if I had to stop and walk occasionally.  I would be able to finish this run.

I love running in a new place.  I ran down a couple of the Music Row streets and I did a few loops around Vanderbilt University.   I saw places I would not have gotten to see if I hadn’t gone for the runs that I did when I was there.

I completed the run (8 miles of it outside, and the final mile on the treadmill in the hotel because it just got too darn hot!) and had the rest of the day to celebrate my little victory.  I do think that running and sweating flushed out the toxins because I did not feel the effects of being drunk the night before like I was expecting.  I think I might have inadvertently stumbled upon a hangover cure.

To commemorate the occasion, my very awesome boss wrote me a song.  Friday must have been a slow day at work!

9 MILES IN NASHVILLE

I did 9 miles in Nashville
My dog had run away
I did 9 miles in Nashville
I hope that he’s ok
I did 9 miles in Nashville
My truck had just let go
I did 9 miles in Nashville
Oh Lord please save my soul

Chorus

When the road is long and your gas is low
You need to get on your feet
When your friends are there to guard your back
You know you can’t be beat
It’s only 9 miles in Nashville
To take your cares away
After 9 miles in Nashville
She’ll be with me in just a day

I did 9 miles in Nashville
This heat is killin’ me
I did 9 miles in Nashville
I hope I can make her see
I did 9 miles in Nashville
Gittin’ her back is the only goal
I did 9 miles in Nashville
Oh Lord please save my soul

(Chorus)

Bridge (full chord change from B to C sharp)

If my dog came back
And my truck would run
I get to you somehow
Damn this heat and this dusty road
This is all I can do right now

(Chorus)  and Fade out

Career

I started the year knowing that I was miserable at the company I worked for and that I needed to make a change.   I knew there was a potential opportunity somewhere in the murky unknown future to work for my friends but when it could happen was a great unknown.

I’m not one to sit back and wait for things to happen,  so it was a very difficult situation for me.  I found myself agitated with the lack of control I had over my life.  So I halfheartedly looked for a new job.  I even went on an interview.  But I knew even in the middle of interviewing that my heart wasn’t in it, and that I wanted to work for my friends.

I couldn’t stand to not be in control of my destiny, to wait for something to happen.  It was very difficult time for me.  Eventually, and this is the weird part, I surrendered to the universe and trusted that it would happen if I just had faith and relaxed.

And it did.  I went on vacation for two weeks and I had this unshakable image in my head that I would be giving my notice on the day I got back from vacation.  This seemed illogical to me and I didn’t know how it would happen but once again I decided to trust and surrender.

The Sunday night before I went back to work, my friends came over and offered me a job.  I gave my notice the next day, my first day back from vacation.  I’ve been there 4 months now and am ridiculously happy.

Lesson learned:  Tell the universe what you want.   Be very clear about what you want and have some faith that it will happen.  Let go of trying to control the situation.

Goals for 2010: Be the best Project Manager I can be.  Become more organized, develop new processes, become LEED Certified.

Health/Fitness

My goal for the year was to run the Beach to Beacon 10K, and lose a little weight and gain a little fitness in the process.

I did run the Beach to Beacon 10K in August and also the Trail to Ale 10K in September.  I ran several 5K races as well.  So far this year I have run 193 miles and I’ve lost about 15 pounds.

Lesson Learned: Having a fitness goal gives me a reason to go to the gym, or to go for a run.  Knowing that I was going to run a competitive race like the B2B really kept me motivated all year.

Goals for 2010: Run the Maine Half-Marathon (21K) in October.  I will have plenty of time to train and it will give me a goal that will last most of the year.  Also, I plan to increase my year’s mileage to 500 miles.  I want to get faster – I’d like to average 11 minute miles in the half-marathon.  And finally, I’d like to lose the last few pounds before I turn 4-0 in June.

Affiliate Marketing

I didn’t have a goal for the year other than to learn all that I could.  I love AM and I am doing pretty well for how little time I spend on it.  I love the unlimited scalability of it.  I love waking up in the morning and seeing sales that have come in when I’m asleep.  I love averaging 300% ROI and knowing full well that I can do better.

Lesson Learned: After playing around with CPA for half the year, I don’t feel okay about it and won’t continue to put effort into it.  I will concentrate my efforts on products that I would buy, that have real value.  I have yet to see a CPA product that didn’t feel scammy to me.

Goal for 2010: Dedicate more time to AM in general.  Fully develop three new content-rich websites in areas that interest me which have multiple monetization avenues.  I already have two sites planned out and ready to implement.   I will spend more time on link building and article writing.

Home

Our ongoing quest to declutter and simplify has been going well this year.  We have gotten rid of all the baby stuff and a huge amount of books and miscellaneous dreck.   The house is looking great.

Another ongoing goal is to fix up the house.  There’s nothing wrong with our house, but it is 210 years old, so it always needs something.  We’re trying to get it to that perfect state with all upgrades completed so if we find another dream house further up the coast we’ll be ready.  It’s hard to think about selling our house though because it is so wonderful, but we do love fixer-uppers and we do dream of moving to Damariscotta.    However, we both love our jobs so our goal isn’t to move this year.  It’s just to have the house in “sale-ready” condition…just in case.

Lesson Learned: Decluttering and simplifiying creates an awesome environment.  What also comes from simplifying life is a lack of want.  We don’t need or want stuff anymore.  If we do need anything we tend to purchase it at a resale shop so we can give it back to Goodwill when we are done with it.

Goal for 2010: Get rid of more stuff, continue updating the house, keep on enjoying life in a very old house with a great soul.

I always feel better after writing and/or saying my goals out loud.  Once they are “out there” I cannot take them back and I feel accountable.  Even if people forget, I don’t forget that I told them.  Also, I’m a huge believer in asking the Universe for what you want, because the Universe will conspire to give it to you.  Goals are part of that process.   And, as my friend Hollywood knows…Goals Work.
What are your goals?  Use the comment section to put yours in writing and send them out to the Universe!

Then when I moved up to Maine in my early 30′s, I took another stab at it.  My husband (a runner) and I did some 5Ks together.  I didn’t take them very seriously.   My last one of this era I had to walk because I was  pregnant.  I took another 5 years off from the sport, raised my babies to toddler-hood and didn’t think much about running.

This year I surprised myself by adding “Run a 10K” to my life’s to-do list.  Where did that come from?

Then I surprised myself even more by rallying my husband (who had run it twice before), his family and our friends to run the Beach to Beacon 10K this year.

The race was on August 1st and it was amazing.

I had technically been training for this since January.   We did have a rough two month stretch in March-April when we were all sick.  My husband even had a bout with pneumonia.

August 1st came up quickly.  I was shocked at how fast it arrived.  When we started this adventure on treadmills at the YMCA in January, I thought we had all the time in the world.

I don’t think this incredibly wet Spring and Summer helped any either.  There were weeks where there were only one or maybe two days that it didn’t rain.   But still I progressed, gradually increasing my distance.  I had never really ran more that 2 miles without stopping before.  But I found myself doing 2.5, then 3, then 4.5.  I am not fast, these are slow miles, but I did them one after the other.

The Monday before the race my husband and I did a trial 10K run.  I finished despite it being a very hot and humid day.  We celebrated with brunch at Bintliff’s.  They didn’t seem to mind that we were dripping with sweat!   I was ready.  The weather wasn’t going to be worse than that – so I knew I’d be fine.

At this point I liked running okay.  I hated the first mile, but I usually had a smile on my face walking back to the car.  I still didn’t think of myself as a runner.

I’m pretty sure running produces the same chemical or hormone that is produced immediately following childbirth. I remember clearly my husband giving me the “are you kidding me” look when following 12 hours of labor and an hour and a half of my son’s head being stuck, I announced “I’d do that again!”. And I did.

Up until the race, I still didn’t enjoy running. However, during the Beach to Beacon, something changed.  I changed.  I became a runner.

I’m not sure when it happened exactly.

It could have been when running past a group of spectators that were blasting music through a professional sound system, a bunch of us started clapping along to the music when running past.

It could have been when running through town, turning the corner onto Shore Road, with hundreds of people lined up on both sides of the street, when I realized I was grinning from ear to ear and actually enjoying this. And I was doing something that all those people watching were not doing.

Or it might have been when I saw the finish line and knew I had something left. I began to sprint and passed a half dozen people before crossing the line. Then kicking myself for leaving that much extra in the tank and vowing to run sub-60 minutes next year.

For the rest of the day, and the days that have followed, I have a sense of peace and contentment that I don’t remember ever having had before.

And I do know one thing…. I’ll do it again.