And speaking of the marathon, it was a lot of fun. We finished in 5:15:42, which is almost an hour and a half lower than my previous time. The weather definitely contributed to the better performance. The sun came out during the second half, but the ocean breeze kept temperatures down. Sara and I are already talking about doing it again next year.

One thing I noticed about training this time around is the sheer amount of energy and determination it takes to train. We started back in early January with little two or three mile loops and peaked in April with 147.4 total miles (almost 5 a day). May was particularly difficult because we started doing our weekday runs in the morning. It was great to run in the pre-dawn hours, but by 1 or 2 in the afternoon, our energy level was zilch. It was hard to concentrate at work and make it those last few hours. The weekend runs were almost a rite of passage. We’d get up as early as possible and then after two, three or four hours of running, we’d “lay low” the rest of the day. It was all we could do. Now that I look back on it, what really got us through was each other. It always seemed that when I didn’t want to run at all, Sara was right there encouraging me and when she couldn’t take another mile I was ready to go. I can remember toward the end of each successive long run cries of “you can do it” or “up and over” getting us through.

After all that, the marathon didn’t seem so daunting in the days leading up to June first. However, we certainly hit the wall at mile 19 or so. As we pushed through we noticed more and more the shirts of other runners with Bible verses written on the back. One that stuck out was Philippians 4:13. Sara kept saying it over and over again, and our strength returned as we came through the other side. By the time we saw our family again at mile 24 we were running strong and knew we could finish well. In all my life, I’ve never felt anything like turning that last corner and seeing the finish line. We kicked hard and ran past the crowd with our hands in the air.

We’re planning on running two more events this year; the America’s Finest City Half Marathon and the San Jose Rock and Roll Half Marathon.

As far as mileage goes, I’m now up over 540 and who knows how far I’ll run by the end of the year.

Run 500 miles – Yup, that’s right. I plan on running five hundred miles this year. I’ve often called myself a running rhinocerous in comparison to my gazelle of a wife, but my last run (a half marathon in San Jose) helped me to finally get over the “less than totally enjoyable” experience I had during my first marathon and consider long distance running a sport I can do.

Plus, I received a Nike+ kit for Christmas. I’m quite enjoying all the statistics and graphs that can be generated from this little accelerometer. I gleefully race to my computer after each run to upload my data and check on my progress. As one friend put it, it turns running into a video game. I’ve joined the Runner+ community, an offshoot of the official Nike+ site that’s a little lighter on flash and allows more control over your data. My profile page is here, and I plan on adding a stats section to the side bar at some point. I started the year off a little slow, but this week I should set myself back on pace to make 500 by December 31st.

Run a marathon and a half marathon – There’s no way I can keep up running unless I have some larger goal to work toward. Sara and I have registered for the San Diego Rock and Roll Marathon on June 1st. It’ll be her fifth and my second, and we’re both hoping it’ll be a better experience than the first one we ran together (90+ degrees on hot L.A. asphalt). We’ll probably do the San Jose Rock & Roll again in October so this goal is pretty much planned for. All that’s left is the training.

Write one blog post each week – I really enjoy writing. I like finding just the right word to express each idea. I pore over my prose like a gardener, tenderly cultivating it until each sentence and paragraph flows just right and the thought that’s in my head comes through as clearly as possible. The only problem is, I don’t do it enough. Good writing takes discipline. It means sitting down and making it your primary task. Therefore, I commit to writing at least one blog post a week. Something more than a funny picture or a witty link. It should be me sharing a part of myself in written form.

There are many other ways I want to improve myself (becoming more organized, reading for fun more, carving time out for my personal programming projects, etc.), but this will have to do as far as measurable goals.

What are some of your goals for 2008?

Before:

After:

Ahhh! Much better.

Basically:

1. The best way to get things done is to do them.
2. The best way to do them is to start doing them.
3. GTD is of no help at all with making you want to do things.

Motivation to get things done is more important than organizing those things.  Motivation, however, is much harder to come by.

I can think of one way that organizing helps.  By taking more things out of your mind, you are less weary when it comes to doing tasks, and therefore are more likely to tackle them (and avoid the strike of lightning).

• Forget fewer tasks
• Spend less time thinking about what I have to do and more time doing it
• Always have something to look for when I’m at the bookstore/library or the movie theater/rental shop.

To this end, I’ve employed a few tools to help me in this process:

• Remember The Milk – For those unfamiliar with RTM, it’s a fancy to-do list manager. It has quite a few features, but the most important is the ability to tag tasks. This opens it up to pretty much any organizational style.
• Goodreads – This site helps me organize all the books I have read, am reading, or want to read. It has a decent interface with just a few quirks that basically gets out of the way.

I wish there was a site similar to Goodreads for my other great hobby, movie watching. I’m sure someone’s thought of it, so maybe someday I’ll ask Google.

That’s all for now.