I’m headed back to Kamloops today. How is my vacation over already?? I really cannot wait to see Webster, though!

Anyways, here is my annual “Year in Review Post.” I really think 2010 was the best year of my life so far. I know that’s a big stretch to say that, but I really think it was! I went traveling, I graduated university, I ran a marathon, I started working full-time and I had a lot of other great times in between all of that.

It had some ups and downs, of course – what year doesn’t? – but overall it was a wonderful year.

Let’s review, shall we?

JANUARY

• Started my final semester of university.
• Booked a trip to Europe.
• Watched the Olympic Torch come through my city.
• Decided to run a marathon.

FEBRUARY

• OLYMPICS in my country and province (I didn’t actually go down for them but it was still a very exciting time!).
• Trip home where I got spoiled by Eric.
• Was majorly stressed out by school.

MARCH

• Still majorly stressed out about school…
• MOVED!

APRIL

• Ran a 10K
• Finished up my semester
• Said goodbye to a wonderful friend when she moved back across the country
• Did a 7-day hot yoga challenge
• FLEW TO EUROPE
• Visited Amsterdam
• Visited Paris

MAY

• Spent the first two weeks of the month in Europe visiting Italy and Greece!
• Arrived back in Kamloops after a whirlwind three weeks in Europe.
• I ran a 15K race after not running for 4 weeks
• I quit eating meat
• Attended Eric’s cousins wedding

JUNE

• Started working full-time
• I graduated University
• Started marathon training
• Eric moved away. Again.

JULY

• My great-grandmother passed away so I made a trip back home for her funeral
• Continued marathon training
• Eric decided to move back to Kamloops

AUGUST

• Eric moved back
• I continued marathon training
• My mom surprised me with a visit
• Kamloops got really smokey from the forest fires

SEPTEMBER

• I turned 22!
• Eric and I escaped to the ocean for the weekend
• I ran 20 miles!
• I ran a 10K Trail Race

OCTOBER

• I met Lisa and spent five days traveling 300 miles with her
• I RAN A MARATHON
• I recovered from an injury and quit running for five weeks

NOVEMBER

• Eric’s birthday!
• I started working at the hot yoga studio in exchange for free yoga
• I recreated Thanksgiving dinner
• A tragedy hit the community that I grew up in and I had a lot of difficulty dealing with it…

DECEMBER

• We *almost* bought a house – thank god we didn’t!!
• I took on more work than I could handle
• I spent 10 days without Eric and wondered how I ever managed to be long-distance for eight months!
• I had a beautiful, wonderful, fabulous Christmas with my family

Happy New Years, friends. Be safe out there! Tomorrow I will be talking about my goals for 2011 so don’t forget to stop by

Was 2010 a bad, good or GREAT year for you? Why?

So, since it’s December this week and all, I think now would be a good time to look at my 10 in 2010 list and check up on the goals I set for myself this year. I’m proud to say that I completed almost all of them!

Any excuse to sneak a Europe picture in This is me looking out at the Mediterranean on the beautiful greek island of Hydra!

Read the full list here (I am taking out the descriptions below)

Personal:

1. Graduate from University – CHECK!

2. Go to Europe – CHECK!

3. Begin to support myself – CHECK! I now pay ALL my bills all by myself with no help from mom & dad. It’s been an adjustment, but I’m doing it!

4. Stop worrying about things I can’t change and things that haven’t happened yet – ummm, working on this still but I think I’m getting better!

5. Save more money/Get finances in order – CHECK! We’ve saved $5,000 in a TFSA and we are currently aggressively house-hunting and will likely buy a house within the next 6 months.

Health/Fitness:

6. Continue to maintain the weight loss I’ve kept off for the last two years – CHECK!

7. Keep running, keep racing – Kind-of CHECK. I did three races in 2010 besides my marathon, I was hoping to do more but marathon training got in the way.

8. Run a full marathon – CHECK!

9. Do more yoga/learn to meditate – CHECK!

10. Become a flexitarian – CHECK! I went over and above and became a pesco-vegetarian when I gave up poultry, beef and pork in May!

I did really well on my goals this year! I think it’s because a lot of the goals I set I knew I would achieve anyways, like finishing University, going to Europe and running the Marathon. Some things, like doing more yoga and becoming a pesco-vegetarian fell into place in surprising ways but it still happened!

In 2011, I really want to focus on SMALL goals. A few things that I’ve added to my list for 2011 so far are:

• Read more
• Spend less time online
• Stop being late all the time
• Cut back on coffee and drink more tea
• Get 8 hours of sleep every. single. night.

As you can see, these aren’t huge goals like going to Europe or running a marathon, but small goals. I actually have MORE difficulty completing small goals than big ones. Isn’t that strange? But I think if I can work on these small things it would really help improve my quality-of-life overall rather than give me one big think to look forward to and work towards and then it’s over. Ya know?

So how did you do on your 2010 goals or resolutions? And are you better at completing big goals or small ones?

Remember when I said I was going to run a marathon this year?

Well, I’ve already picked out the one I’m going to be doing and I plan on signing up next week after I get paid. Efficient, aren’t I? On 10/10/10 me and Lisa are running the Portland Marathon in Portland, Oregon!

That’s right. I’m signing up to run a marathon. A marathon. 26.2 miles. 42.2 kilometres. Yikes!

Like seriously, who is this girl? A year ago I was just training to run my first half-marathon and I’ve since ran THREE and I’m signed up for a FOURTH in March and now I’m talking about doing a full-marathon. Craziness, I know!

I blame it on the blogs. I’ve been adding more and more “running” blogs to my reader and whenever I read about a blogger training for and/or doing a marathon, I feel kinda jealous! I want to train for a marathon. I want to put in 40-50 mile weeks and lose a toenail, damn it! Blogs like this one, this one, this one, this one and this one (and many more) have inspired me to JUST DO IT! So I am.

So, ya, it’s 10 months away. But, you know what, 10 months is going to go by before I know it. And I’m just so excited to have a goal in mind. Right now I am training for the Kelowna Campus-to-Campus Half-Marathon, which I hope to run in under two hours – then I’ll be taking off to Europe for three weeks and probably not running at all. From May 10 (when I get back to Canada) to June 1 I will try to build some of my fitness back up again. And in June I will start a 16-week training plan for the full! I  hope I don’t lose too much fitness while I’m in Europe, do you think I will?

So, this summer this blog might turn into a bit of a running blog. Don’t hate me, non-runners. Just sayin’

Oh, and the other MAJOR POINT I want to make with this post is:

Who wants to join us?

Seriously, though why not throw Portland on your fall marathon schedule and come on up (or down depending on where you’re located) and meet us and run with us. It could be will be funnn! And if your not a marathoner, Portland is offering a half-marathon for the first year ever in 2010! So you could come do the half-marathon. Or you could just come make signs and cheer us on, or you know, meet us and then sleep in the hotel while we go run 26.2 miles. Whatevers your thing. And you’d get to meet ME and LISA! So really what other reasons do you need?

And my last point is….

….Look at how pretty Portland is! According to google images anyways (I’ve never been).

{Image found here}