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Goals and Declare It Day...

If you have been reading or just know me personally, you know I am goal oriented.  At least most of the time.  :)  I posted my New Year goals here.

A few days back I went to the Badgerland Strider Christmas Party/Award night.  Wait, rewind, almost exactly one year ago, my Badgerland Strider challenge was put into motion!  Wow, I cannot believe it has been a whole year and that I got my prize at the Award night.  Proof that I am goal oriented, but only when I am in control of the outcome I think.  Like this Strider challenge, all I HAD to do was cross 8 of 9 finish lines.  I did not have to win the races or even place in my age group.  I just had to show up and cross the finish line.  Believe me, the way my year started out last year, that was a good mantra ~ Just cross the line, just cross the line...

As you know, I was not happy with that mantra and set another goal/challenge to myself back in August.  I decided that mantra stunk and I knew I was better than that, and I was going to prove it.  I started my challenge of running one or more miles a day for the whole month of August.  I did it, too.  Then I couldn't stop, I wanted to see how many days I could go with out stopping.  I made it to 139 before I fell in December.  That is a lot of days in a row.  I don't even think I ran every day with the Cross Country and Track teams in college.  I think I took off on Sunday after race weekends, but I may have gone out easy a couple of Sunday's too.

Well, onto DECLARE IT DAY!  At that Christmas party, I sat with 3 ladies.  We started to chat and as we shared stories, one lady asked me about Fellow Flowers.  And said a friend Anonymously "Flowered" her.  She said it really meant a lot to her and that she follows them on Facebook.  Her other friends, as well as myself, dug out our smartphones and started looking them up.

I didn't do much searching after that moment, and I had heard of them before.  In fact, my t-shirt here:

is one of their creations!

They have some really cool stuff.  I have a client who has a TON of their shirts!  The quotes are amazing and so fitting.

Well, now that I follow them on Facebook, I get some of their posts.  And I think one last week was about DECLARE IT DAY 2015.  This is an event they started a couple of years ago.  I am just now reading their Goal Guide and how the concept came about and what the day is all about.  It is about empowering women and moms to set goals for themselves.  From the guide:  

We wanted to eliminate the stereotypes that keep women from stepping in, and we were committed to crushing the vicious silos that prevent women from connecting with each other. We wanted a space for women’s voices to be heard, validated and celebrated.

The purpose of Declare It Day has never been about putting restrictions on WHAT your goal should be... but rather giving you the freedom and space to chase whatever matters to you. Over the past two years, we have seen women say it out loud, write it down and believe in themselves, and then, go on to achieve not just their goals but also a renewed sense of purpose and possibility. 

Last fall in Disney with Deanna, she said at least once a day while there:  "I think this is the first goal I have ever completed!"  And I am super proud of her and how far she had come to get to that weekend.  She has set new goals and is still running.  I believe her next life time goal to finish is college and if you ask her I am sure she knows exactly how many more days she has until graduation this spring.  

I am wondering how many of female friends have thought of things they would like to do some day after the kids are grown?  Or think that they could never do that?  DECLARE IT DAY is about setting that goal and getting help from other women to get it done!

February 7, 2015 is DECLARE IT DAY.  I am off to finish reading my Goal Guide and prepare for the day.  Will you join me?

Off n Running,

AnnMarie

PS.  A quote from the Goal Guide that made me think of blogging today!

“STRENGTH DOESN’T COME FROM WHAT YOU CAN DO. IT COMES FROM OVERCOMING THE THINGS YOU ONCE
THOUGHT YOU COULDN’T.”

NIKKI ROGERS 

Strider Half

This is the starting line, about 5 minutes before the air horn started the race!  Race time was 8:00am.  You can sort of see the fog in the trees in the distance.  And everyone looks sweaty before the race!

I started to hydrate on Thursday afternoon and continued until race time.  Our summer has been pretty cool as far as Wisconsin summers go.  So to complain about the humidity on race day?!?!  I think it was allowed.  (Then again I am going to enjoy the heat as much as I can after the freezing cold winter we have had.)

I have not been following any training plans this summer.  This is my 4th HALF marathon of the year.  As you may recall, I started the year with an injury.  (I thought it was my piriformis, turns out it was/is a hamstring thing!)  Any way, with all my crazy challenges this year, I have not followed a plan.  I have not seen much of a trainer or taken classes at the club I work at.  So, I go into these races with the goal of only crossing the finish line.  And so far this year, that is what I have done.

This is how I started my Saturday race!  I just need to finish.   As the air horn blasted, I pushed start on my Strava app and tucked it into my race belt.  And we were off.  Just me and about 1000 other men and women.  I put on my headphones and FUN. was running along with me.  After about mile 5, I decided that was enough music and tucked the headphones away.  Then I took in the race down the path, it was nice.  I wished for a breeze and a dry shirt!   

We hit the turn around and it occurred to me that I had not heard my app update me on my race time.  I have been enjoying the app, I like to listen for my splits.  I am not very good at even splits and tend to just run.  She keeps me charging forward!  

I crossed the finish line and took my phone out, only to see that it didn't record my run!  AAAAHHHH!!!!!  Seriously, I don't know what happened but it didn't record.  I had been using the app to track my month and now it will look like I missed a day of running.  

Thankfully there is a results tent and I could get my official time and stuff:  1:56.15, 6th in my age group.  Not to bad for not following a plan!

Sweaty selfie at the end of the race.

This was my 9th race for the year.  So I have 5 more to complete my 14 in 2014.  This was my 4th race in the Badgerland Strider Challenge too.  

I saw my friend, Sara there and met the dude who wears pink ALL THE TIME!!!!  I have seen him in many of my Challenge races and wondered what his deal was.  Sara asked him about it and he told us he just likes the color pink.  He also said he gets asked a lot about that and that he really likes girls too!  Poor guy.  He is funny and friendly, so if you are in the Milwaukee area and at a race, you will find him, I promise!  

It was a great day for a run with my friends, I hope to see them all again soon.  Until my next post...

Off n Running,

AnnMarie

Another one in the books

Note: original draft date was 6/16/14!

So, it has been AGES since I made time to blog...

If you recall, I took a couple challenges on this year.  One with the local running club, where I signed up for 8 races.  I completed race number 2 over the weekend.

I did get to watch my friends run the Summerfest Rock N Sole races.  These signs were placed all over the course last year.  I took a few photos as a spectator!

So true!  Proud of all those who finished what they started. 

Thankful I didn't need to do this!

On Saturday June 14, 2014 was the inaugural Hartfest Half Marathon.  It was at 1:00pm!  It got hot and I got to work on my runners tan!  

I have been trying to fix my hamstring injury.  Found an awesome Physical Therapy place and have been trying to do my exercises daily.  (I forgot how to do some of them!). Because of the injury, I did not train for this half as I would/should have!  All in all I survived another half, and will do another one.

Results: 2:06, not bad, if I do say so myself!