Distance

So after my run this morning, I was listening to the radio, and they were interviewing a woman about new year's resolutions and the like.  She suggested that you instead of thinking about traditional resolutions, you set goals for yourself (like I did!) and pick a word that might define your upcoming year.
Once you pick a word, you're supposed to share it with your family and friends to help you stay accountable.  Then throughout the year, you should work towards fulfilling your goals with this word.
Driving home, I thought pretty hard about this.  It at first seemed impossible to sum up all of my goals with one word, but this I realized it wasn't so tough after all.
My word for 2014 is:

DISTANCE

Now, for some aspects of my life, this should be pretty self-explanatory.  I want to start running longer races.  Distance is key.
Yesterday, I stumbled on some information about the Wilds Half Marathon along the boardwalk in New Jersey.  It looked so great- and I just love running on the boardwalk in Ocean City.  The one drawback is that this half is just two months after the Rock and Roll Half that I've been training for.
Then I read an article about a vegan couple in their 60's who ran a marathon EVERY DAY in 2013! Wow!  Now I had no excuse to not do a second half marathon in a year.
Then this morning, I opened my email, and had a coupon code for registering for this race.  C'mon, how obvious do these signs need to be?  I bargained with myself (as I am wont to do) and decided that if I was to get up and go run a 5k in the rain, I would be fine to run two half marathons in two months.  So I did.  3.7 miles, actually, and it was cold AND wet. And I signed up for the thing.

Otherwise, though, Distance works in with my other goals.
I'm working on my dissertation for my PhD.  Currently, I'm in official research approval stages with my school, but very shortly, I should be cranking out this research with interviews and literature reviews and all sorts of fun stuff.  I can go the distance here.  I spoke with my mentor today, and she was very positive about my progress, and even told me I was her "lowest maintenance mentee!" (I'm going to take that as a compliment, thank you very much.)

Lastly, as I type this, I realize that Distance works for me in another way.
My daughter, who is a sophomore in college (but this is still her first year, yep.) will be going away in the fall to another school, which, while it's not terribly far away is still a hike. My relationship with her is something very special that I really cherish, and while I think I might be ready for her to go, I know I'm not.  That will be a challenge that I will need to hurdle. I need to remember that she doesn't need to be in my house to be my friend, and we will be fine.

So enough sappy stuff.  And sorry for the Disney earworm.  I figured that since it had been stuck in my head all day, it could be stuck in yours, too.