Here's a New Year's resolution I probably won't forget next year.

Photo taken of me on Saturday, October 25, 2008, with performance award at the 7th Annual Fall into St. Michaels 5K Run in Talbot County, Maryland where I finished out this year's endeavor to run in a running event in every Maryland county within a half-a-year!

It's funny how I make these "New Year's resolutions" towards the end of one year and then as the new year gets rollin', I forget what it was I resolved to do in the New Year. This is often the case with me and something tells me I'm not alone in this :)-

Well I think I've got one that has been on my heart for the past few months and one that I think may last even beyond 2009: I want to cut back on the number of races that I do, and I want to cut-back heavily. Just in case you are new to this blog or haven't stopped by recently, I have been blessed to have done about 112 races this year (not including my participation for a little while in the Kent Island High School Relay for Life in Stevensville (Queen Anne's County), Maryland), and that is by far the most races I have run in a year. That beats out the about 81 or 82 races I ran last year in 2007, and it just barely doubles the 54 or so races I ran in 2006 (and I thought that was an incredible amount of races back then). I still can't believe that I have been running very strong times for my level of fitness and am in range for running some personal best times for some distances like two miles and 5-kilometers (3.1 miles). I've been through some injuries this year as well as some brief spells of me not feeling well (especially around the late summer/early fall of this year), but that did not stop God from helping me to do just about all of the events I wanted to do this year and to do just about all of them as well as I wanted if not better than I expected.

I think it may be good for my health and my mind to cut back, even though I am still apparently running pretty strong for myself right now and am enjoying the races. I am concerned that it can become an addiction if I don't put my foot down with it and at least cut back, plus I'm not going to lie, sometimes it can put a strain on my money. I don't want it to become an idol if it already has. God has been very graceful to me with my running and racing, and I believe that's why I've been able to still run as strong as I do and find joy in it like I do even after all of these races and having done them in every county of Maryland and Delaware, and even in Baltimore City, Washington D.C., and one in northern Virginia (Fairfax) within a half-a-year this year. I don't want this come between me and God, and I want to make sure that for my running and racing in the future that it is God who is in the center of that. I'll still run and train and do races (just not nearly as many as I've done and I probably won't do as many ones further away from me either), and I still plan on being a member of the Howard County Striders and quite possibly renewing my membership with the Eldersburg Rogue runners in Carroll County, MD. Though, I don't want my sense of self-esteem and identity to be mired by it. I know I don't seem to have many other strengths or abilities (at least none that I'm aware of), so that's probably another reason why I've taken to running and racing so well. I meet so many great people and it has been something I have been excelling at for over a decade now. Running races in every county of Maryland and Delaware for the past couple of years has made me famous, probably more so than anything I've done, and I'm glad that the Good Lord helped me to creatively challenge myself to it, follow through on it, and emerge successfully and healthy. It's certainly a lot of fun and it has given me some of the best and enjoyable memories I have had in my life so far, though next year I don't feel much of a strong compulsion to do races in every county of Maryland, or do a triathlon like I did this year in Charles County, MD (the General Smallwood Sprint Triathlon in late June, which was my first multi-sport event). I'll still blog and use my blogs to give coverage to running events and races that don't appear to get a lot of promotion or coverage (if any).

In light of a few recent races (one of which includes a personal best indoor track time of 11:10 in the 3,200 meters last Saturday :), I would typically want to do more races in the near future, but I have as many reasons to still stand firm on my conviction that I should hold back a bit. For one thing, I signed up for a couple of teaching certificate courses through C.C.B.C. (Community College of Baltimore County), and one of which will be a bit of a commute to Dundalk, MD and the other will be my first class that I take totally online. Also quite recently, a couple of friends that I've drifted away from pretty much because of living different kinds of lives, have been making their way back into mine. One of them added me on Facebook.Com as a friend (a request that I joyously accepted), and then I ran into the other one at a local library last week, and I'm hoping to make some time to hang out with them and catch up in the near future. I don't feel like my social life has really suffered as a result of doing a lot of races, in fact I think I've made some really good friends and built good relationships with people this year (which I think was part of last year's New Year's resolution, but don't quote me on it). I'm sure it can only improve with a little extra free time by cutting back on the races. Of course, this may help me save a bit more money as well! Finally, I see maybe having a little more time to actually work on writing my books on running in running events in different counties of Maryland and Delaware in 2007 and 2008 (with the almost 200 races I've done these past coule of years, I'll have a lot of journal entries to work on). Writing and literature I think are things that have sort have been pushed to the wayside as I've let running and racing become a larger part of my life. It certainly has been fun and beneficial on different levels, but if I keep carrying on like it, I can most likely run into troubles with my body and other parts of life I'm sure.

Thank you all for reading these blogs and it has been great meeting you, and I look forward to getting to you better in the future. I hope to see you runners and races at some of the races in the near future, but if you think I am overdoing it with the races next year, please don't be hesistant about e-mailing me/commenting on my blog/calling me/telling me in person, or whatever, I could probably benefit from the accountability too. I also appreciate you praying for me too. I do not want running and racing to become any more of an obsession, addiction, or an idol than it already is in my life, and if it already has become those things, I apologize because I shouldn't be doing that and I don't think that running and races should be something to be completely consumerd by (although right now I feel like there are worse things that one can get addicted too, but I won't go into that opinion). I am glad that I feel like it's the right thing to do to cut back. I am realizing that perhaps the real adventure behind all of thiis is not just the racing, or seeing if I can do a race in every county of a state within a certain time period, or how many races I can do, but it's trusting God that He will take care of you and provide for you as you leave (or in my case back off of) a place or an activity that brings a sense of routine, comfort, familiarity, adventure, fun, self-esteem, identity, accomplishment, etc. to go to a place (or different activities) that are less familiar. I think this is where faith is going to come into play. I know some of this may sound corny, and I'm not trying to make anyone who takes a lot pleasure in doing a lot of running and racing feel bad or guilty, but this is where I am at right now with it, and it has been on my mind and in my heart as strongly as it was on the evening of Saturday, March 24, 2007, when I was struck with the idea of trying to run a race in every county of Maryland in a year.

Maybe to some this is not that big of a deal, but to me this looks like it could be my next sort of "leap of faith" adventure, and perhaps it's good that I pull back a bit, because it may be harder to do so later on if I got any more intense about running and racing.

So that's what's new with me pretty much and where I am at right now. There are other hobbies I enjoy in my life like reading, hiking, videogames, watching movies, and all that that I have not been as attentive towards in my free time and I think a lot of it is because of my frequent racing; I just don't want to maintain the level of intensity with which I have followed through on these things nor do I want to become any more intense about it (because in my mind, that would be scary).

Thank you all once again for your attention, understanding, support, and prayers. I hope to hear from you/see you. In case for some reason I don't get around to posting before then; I hope you all have a terrific New Year :)