Resolutions

Last year I didn't make a New Year's Resolution.  I really didn't make any resolutions until April, when I watched my husband complete a half-marathon and noticed, on the faces of each and every single person who crossed that finish line, a look of achievement that I decided I wanted for myself.  The really fast runners, the newbies, the ones who looked like they were about to drop...they all had the same look on their face: "I did it."  That encouraged me to start training for a half-marathon in October, which I successfully completed.

So now I have come up with a new goal, and I'm putting it out there right now so that I can't back down.  2011 is going to be the year I learn to swim.  I talked to the swimming director at the gym today and signed up for private adult swimming lessons, beginning some time after the 10th of January.  I have several reasons for wanting to attain this goal.

First of all, during the last mile of the half-marathon my knee began to bother me.  I did not stop running, of course, because I only had one mile to go.  But since then it has continued to bother me and I have not been able to run on it very long or very often.  So I need to find something else to burn big calories. 

Second, although I am still and will always be younger than Becky, I know age is going to creep up on me.  Finding something that is easier on the joints is going to be a bonus in the future.

And third, it just stinks not being able to swim.  Last year my husband and I went to St. John in the U. S. Virgin Islands for our 25th anniversary.  St. John is one of the ultimate snorkeling sites in the world.  But on our first day out, I got out in the water about up to my neck, started to panic and hyperventilate, and had to turn around and go back to the beach.  Luckily my husband is not the type to say, "Well, see ya later, I'm going to go have fun anyway."  Instead he is the type to say, "We're not having this."  He went up the beach until he found a place that would rent me fins and a life jacket (translation: water wings for weenie adults) so that I was able to snorkel with him.  And the day we came across a big group of sea turtles will always be one of my favorite memories.  But I almost missed it, due to my fear of the water.  So it is time to learn how to do this.

I will keep you posted, and in the meantime, what is your goal for 2011?  What do you need to do to achieve it?