There Are "resolutions"...and then There Are RESOLUTIONS!

My closest friend has often told me, “Wow, when you decide to do something, you don’t do it halfway, do you? You commit!” I take that as a compliment, although she might mean it (at least partially) as a suggestion that I seek psychological help.

In my last entry, I mentioned the first two races of 2011 for which I’m registered: The First Run Lowell 5k on New Year’s Day (as I keep my fingers crossed that New England does NOT get slammed by a blizzard this week) and Boston’s Run to Home Base 9k on May 22nd. (That latter race is a fundraiser, so if you’d like to help me get to my ambitious fundraising goal of $1000, please visit my fundraising page at www.runtohomebase.org/runtohomebase/joanmeyer. I’ll add your name, and the names of any veterans on whose honor or memory you are making your donation, to the sign that I will wear on my back all through the race.) I'm particularly pleased to be running that race in honor of Louis Zamperini, 1936 Olympian and WWII POW, and the inspiring subject of Laura Hillenbrand's fascinating book, Unbroken. I’m also hoping to run the Peachtree Road Race (10k) on the Fourth of July in “Hawtlanta,” Georgia. Call it a 48th birthday present for myself, since my birthday is the day before the race. (If it gets hot enough, it might also be my LAST birthday present to myself…not to mention possibly my last birthday!)

An active.com e-mail about the SheROX sprint triathlon in Bermuda caught my eye this morning and inspired my next race registration. (How can I resist an event with the tagline, “She SWIMS, she RIDES, she RUNS…She ROX!”?) Maybe it’s the late-December-in-Upstate-New-York brain damage talking, but who could blame me for wanting to go to Bermuda in November, even if it involved swimming, cycling and running all in the same day? There was just one problem: a sprint triathlon was on my Goal List for 2012, not 2011; and I wanted to complete that sprint tri in the Cleveland area, where my fitness heroine (and pseudo mentor), Tiffany, lives.

Well, Tiffany to the rescue! Thanks to some info she provided to me (and a wee bargain we struck), I am now registered for the Ohio Women’s Sprint Triathlon for the Cure at Portage Lakes (near Akron) on September 17th. This particular women-only sprint tri is right up my alley: 250-yard open-water swim, 7-mile bike course and 2-mile run. I looked at those distances, even in combination, and thought, “I can definitely finish that course!” (Since the swim will be my greatest challenge, I’ll have to try to find some open water swimming here in Upstate New York—not really difficult to find, given our abundance of lakes…but did I mention it’s currently December?!?!?!?) Best of all, since it’s a tri that’s geared toward beginners, I won’t feel intimidated about not having all the top-of-the-line equipment. (I don’t even have a road bike--I ride a hybrid!) My goal will be to finish; I have no idea what kind of time goal to set, if any (but I think finishing in under an hour won’t be too overly ambitious). I really just want to complete this mini-tri and enjoy the experience! I suppose my greatest challenge may involve completing the lake swim without getting that skeeved-out look on my face when my feet touch the bottom of the lake. <shudder>

Best of all, the event raises funds for the Komen Foundation and I’ll get to cheer on Tiffany as she competes in an Olympic triathlon the following day. (I get tired just thinking about that distance!) As for our “wee bargain”? We’re planning to compete in the SheROX Bermuda sprint triathlon together in 2012! That race will involve a half-mile swim, a 20k bike ride and a 5k run.

Keep in mind that my 2011 goals also include a half-marathon! (Hmmm…there’s one in Barbados in December…) This is just the kind of stuff that helps keep me warm during these nasty Upstate New York winters!

So, as my dear friend discovered long ago: No, I really don’t do things halfway. But if you’re not going to commit, why do it at all?

KEEP MOVING!!!

A Sneak Peek at 2011

Well, it's been a while since you last heard from Ginger (aka La Tortue Enflammé), and I've been really busy with rehearsals and performances of "Mrs. Bob Cratchit's Wild Christmas Binge"! It's been a blast and, after December 18th, Mrs. Bob will be no more. I'll miss having so much fun playing with a great and talented group of actors whom we have unofficially nicknamed "The Mrs. Bob-le Heads". If there's a plus side to the show ending, it's that I can at least start returning to my previous Amish-farmer-wannabe hours. Sad to say, my time management skills have rather gone to pot during the rehearsal and performance schedule. More auditions are coming up in early January, so I'm hoping for another opportunity to restore those skills while maintaining a rehearsal schedule and, of course, training for my next run.

Mother Nature has been quite frigid this December, which means that a chickenshit like me ends up running on the "dreadmill" rather than outside. (I'm a wuss, I'll admit it!) Registering for cold-weather races is something I've done intentionally to help me keep running, despite the cold, harsh Northeast winters. (And, technically, as I write this, it's not even technically winter yet...YIKES!!!) I'm keeping my fingers fiercely crossed that Albany will manage to avoid getting much snow this winter (and, please, NO ice or freezing rain, OK?); the über-freezing, blustery weather is plenty brutal enough for me! (Yes, I've already lost count of the number of times I've considered moving to Florida. This week...)

I am already registered for two runs in 2011: The First Run 5k in Lowell, MA on January 1st; and a run I am absolutely ECSTATIC about running, the RUN TO HOME BASE 9K presented by New Balance® on May 22nd in Boston. This race is  a unique and special event that celebrates our military heroes and  raises necessary funds for the Red Sox Foundation and Massachusetts  General Hospital Home Base Program. The Home Base Program is committed  to serving the needs of veterans with combat stress and/or traumatic  brain injury and their families. Your support to the Home Base Program will help to ensure that veterans who served our country receive the clinical treatment they need  for combat stress and/or traumatic brain injury, and that their  families get the guidance and support they need. The Home Base Program  also seeks to advance innovative treatments that hold the most potential  for helping veterans with combat stress and/or traumatic brain injury  and their families.

You can probably imagine what a thrill it will be for me (a die-hard Red Sox fan) to cross home plate in historic Fenway Park. This race provides me with TWO unique challenges: It is the longest distance race I have registered for to date (previously, I only registered for 5k's) and it also involves a rather ambitious fundraising goal for me: $1,000. I hope you will take a moment to visit my fundraising page at www.runtohomebase.org/runtohomebase/JoanMeyer and make a donation. Your donation will be sincerely appreciated, no matter the amount! The last fundraiser I ran, the Komen Race for the Cure 5k, I was so pleased and profoundly touched by the generosity of so many donors. In that race, I ran with a sign on my back, listing the name of each person who donated and the names of those whom those folks donated in honor of or in memory of; it was truly an honor for me to wear that sign throughout the race. So I decided to do that again for the Run to Home Base 9k! When you make your donation—whatever the amount—please be sure to indicate on the donation form the name(s) of any military personnel in whose honor you're making your donation. (If you know that person's rank and military branch, that would be great and I will include that info on my sign!)

The race is in May, but raising $1,000 will take a lot of time and effort, so I hope you'll consider making a donation as soon as you can!

Thanks! Gotta run!!!