Yesterday was a special day (Nov. 24th)

My very good friend, Mark, became a new dad to a beautiful baby girl yesterday! When I went to the Running Room "Learn to Run" clinic last night, we ran by his Aunt and Uncle's home. It made me smile and think of Mark and how happy I am for him and his family. He lives far away, so I won't get to see him or his daughter for quite some time.

Mark and I - Halloween 1998

I also thought about how much he has inspired me - and felt today was a good day to acknowledge him! I've known Mark for about 13 years (can you believe it Mark?). We were in college together, worked together for a couple years, now we live provinces apart, but through it all have kept our friendship alive. A few years ago, Mark decided he needed to shed some weight - he was always ready with a big bear hug and made everyone laugh with his quick wit and impersonations (Cartman was the best!), but his future health was at risk and he knew he needed to make a change. And boy did he ever change!  He started out eating better and going to the gym on his lunch break. Within a year he was a very slim version of the Mark I met back in college - and he looked great! But most important of all, he was healthy, and had taken the 'smart' path to healthy. And now he's a runner! If you would have told Mark or me when we became friends that he would be running 10km races in 10 years, you would have had to peel us both off the floor from laughter.  Now, years later, he's still the 'new and improved' version of Mark and I'm so proud to call him my friend!

Mark & I Halloween in Halifax, 2004 - We had a BLAST that night

Mark, you have inspired me with your commitment to your health and fitness. Last night, I realized if you can run 10km races, then so can I!  I've decided to run the 10km in the Bluenose here in Halifax in May.  I'm pretty sure my other good friend, Michelle, is going to be running in it also. It'd be pretty awesome if we could all run it together! The funniest part is you two would probably leave me in your collective dust - and I'm the one that's played sports my whole life - Go figure! I've got some training to do...

Enjoy every precious moment with your baby girl, Mark, and be proud of your accomplishments and the future you are going to have with your family. You're an amazing, awesome, adventurous dad!!

SO Excited!!

Tonight was my last swimming class until the fall... I'm not excited about that, BUT I am excited about the progress I made! At the beginning of this 12 week session, our instructor timed us on 50m, 100m and 200m swims for our benchmark to see how we improved by the end. Tonight was our 'timing' night. If I had just posted my initial times, unless you're a swimmer, you likely have no idea if they were slow or fast. But wait until you see my before and after!! (This is almost better than a before and after photo display! Although I'm sure there is some change there too, I didn't think to take photos...)

Distance	10wks AGO	TODAY	IMPROVEMENT
50m	0:51	0:46	5sec!
100m	1:55	1:40	15sec!!
200m	4:17	3:43	34sec!!!

Ahhhh... basking in the glory of having the best improvement in the class. :-)

I set a goal for myself at the beginning that I wanted to be at least as fast as the 20-something, university student/swim instructor in the class by the time we finished. I always felt so slow next to her and tonight we were paired up during our timed laps. I couldn't wait to see if I would be able to keep up. The first set, 50m, we finished exactly the same! She improved on her time by 1sec, so that means I was 1sec faster than her original time! And I would have beat her if I could do the damn flip-turn at the wall too!

Then it was our turn to swim the 100m... I focused on trying to get a faster turn at the wall and it paid off - I BEAT her by 3 seconds!! And then I learned I had beat my previous time by a full 15 seconds!! I was over-the-moon.

Finally our 200m - I didn't win this match up, but I was only 2 or 3 seconds behind and I'm pretty sure I matched her original 200m time, which is all I was looking for anyway. Plus I swam 34 seconds faster than my original time - 34 SECONDS! That's more than half a minute in a sub-4 min distance!! MAJOR improvement!!

It's funny how when I SET A GOAL, a specific, measurable goal, I reach it. I can't think of one goal, one that I REALLY wanted, that meant something to me, that I've set and didn't reach. WOW! That's powerful stuff... Have you set any goals lately?

P.S. I've recently fixed the comment option so name/anonymous posts work now - leave a comment below with your goals!