Running the River- a New Year's Resolution that actually got achieved

Ian ran his first marathon over the weekend! He ran up in Sacramento's Run the River marathon whose trail sidles up along the American River. It was a gorgeous time of year to run with all the fall foliage out. If you knew his exercise habits over the last six years since we moved to LA, and before, you'd know that this was a really huge accomplishment for him. We are so proud of him!! It wasn't always easy to get in all of his training sessions, and it's a miracle he was able to do the marathon, but somehow he managed to pull off the whole 26.53 miles! Yeay! I can't believe he actually did his New Year's Resolution...


Last Christmas/New Year's Ian and I were relaxing with his family and my family over the break. Ian read Michael Pollard's Omnivore's Dilemma and was so inspired to make some changes in our food choices that we set a goal to start eating local produce. Eating healthier also inspired him to make some changes in his exercise routine, and he decided to work towards something... say a marathon perhaps. Actually, he set the goal to run a half marathon, which was still a big goal, and the fact that he did even more is so impressive to me. I had my goal to nurse my twins exclusively for one year, and we also made a family goal to have Love at Home (this is practically our family mantra now).

When we got home because I'm a little scrapper now I made a 'goal board' that hung in our room. It was the last thing we saw each night and first thing we saw in the morning. I put everything up there except my nursing goal- I just couldn't find a photo I felt comfortable with at the time. I put up Ian's long standing goal to produce his Western. It's really great to look at it now and see that we've accomplished (almost) all the things we set out to. We've been eating out of our CSA box all year, learning how to cook comfortably with chard, cabbage and kale (finally! although we never really got okra) and loving all the fresh, seasonal, organic veggies. We're holding FHE each week, and trying to have Love at Home (that's one of those nebulous goals, I should probably choose something more specific, although I don't know what that would be- only five fights per day??). Ian is still working on producing his movie, but he's made so much progress I think we can pretty much count that one.

It's almost time to make a new goal board for next year. I'm so grateful for all the opportunities that 2009 has given us! It's been an amazing year and I feel so excited to see what we'll choose to work on next year!