New Year's resolution

Five years ago in December, I got this common cold and had to lay in bed for a few days. As usual I went to work but after work I crashed into bed and stayed there until I had to get up again and go to work. After this period of sickness I was so happy to be able to get outside again that I promised myself that I would do something like setting a goal. I would try to go out running every day before work and see how many days that would last. And of course while I was doing this, running out there like crazy, I could feel that my shape was getting better every week. Then Christmas came with a few days off work and I used those days to run even more. Usual week days I only could run like 5 kilometers in the morning before work. But I tried to get out every morning. I got addicted to it and the work day just felt wrong if I hadn't run in the morning. 

There was this day in December when I went outside. The wind was blowing from south and that means it isn't very cold although the wind can be pretty annoying. It is absolutely necessary to wear something to keep the hair out of ones face. Running in wind makes one pretty busy doing other things than running. Like keeping the buff in its place over the hair. But I felt great that particular day. It felt really good to be able to escape from the holiday stress in my home and see how nature changes every day. It had been snowing the week before that and then a couple of days before the snow melted all of a sudden. The temperature outside changed from maybe -2°C to +14°c over night. Which meant floods and mud slides. I had a favorite path leading through a forest near my little town and that path had huge holes in it in several places. The melted snow had made the creeks into rivers that took bridges with them. Behind every bend of the path there was another surprise.

Then I went out a couple of days later in a totally different weather. It was a bit colder but wind still. And it felt really pleasant to be out there. I just wanted to go on and on for hours. Walking and running. But that day I didn't have unlimited time because I was invited to a wedding later that day. And I sat at the wedding and thought about the running, eager to get out there again. That day I probably decided what my New Year's resolution would be. This was December 30th. And yes, I decided that I would run a whole marathon, 42.2 kilometers in the year of 2007. And I would not keep it a secret, I would tell everyone about it. I would announce it on my blog. I would talk about it at work. I would tell my family about it. Then there would be no way back. Well.. I knew that even if I registered to some street run, I could get sick and not be able to participate. But then I always could run the marathon distance by myself some other time.