The end of the first week of the new year is upon
us. This hopefully brings with it an end
to those dumb news fillers like “Best of 2015” lists or "How to keep your resolutions in 2016." I say “hopefully” because I want to spend time
sharing my own dumb filler about one of my resolutions.
First, let me go on record saying that I think the whole notion of New Year’s resolutions is silly. It is predicated on the idea that we are displeased or unsatisfied with who we are at the given moment and the turn of a calendar page provides us the opportunity to renew, recreate, or otherwise reinvent ourselves into who we would like to be from January 1 to December 31. Yet the calendar year is an arbitrary period of time for self-improvement. Each day marks the end of a 365-day cycle (or a 366-day cycle every four years.) Thus every day provides each of us a years-worth of opportunities to remake ourselves during the coming 12 months. That being said…
My friend, colleague, and fellow Mexican Intellectual, Frank Gaytán, wrote recently about the connection between running and writing when describing his renewed commitment to his own authorship efforts. And while Frank and I indeed have recommitted ourselves to our blogging and other writings, I also am recommitting myself to my running.
I registered for the Chicagoland Half-Marathon challenge last October. The challenge is to complete two half-marathons, one in May and the other in September. I decided to run both races for a couple of different reasons. One is simply that I enjoy participating in distance races like these, as I have written previously. Another reason is for improved physical well-being as I find myself in the thick of middle-age, which has contributed mightily to my middle spread. Finally, 2015 was a difficult year for me and completing distant races in the past always gave me a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. I figure experiencing those kinds of sentiments again would be better than wallowing in self-pity about the year gone by.
To be clear, I do not intend for any of you to interpret what I write here as moralizing as to why people should exercise more or as inspiring to encourage others to embrace new challenges. I am simply stating that I hope the coming months of training will provide me with some new insights to explore further the kinds of ideas I have explored previously in this space. If you have read The Mexican Intellectual up until now, I welcome your readership in the coming months.
Postscript: Preparing for a distance race has a funny side every now and again. As an older runner trying to complete today’s five-mile training run in the midst of Chicago’s snowy, weekend weather, I felt like someone out of Rocky Balboa. I will leave it to you to guess with which character I most identified. Hint: It was not the dog.
First, let me go on record saying that I think the whole notion of New Year’s resolutions is silly. It is predicated on the idea that we are displeased or unsatisfied with who we are at the given moment and the turn of a calendar page provides us the opportunity to renew, recreate, or otherwise reinvent ourselves into who we would like to be from January 1 to December 31. Yet the calendar year is an arbitrary period of time for self-improvement. Each day marks the end of a 365-day cycle (or a 366-day cycle every four years.) Thus every day provides each of us a years-worth of opportunities to remake ourselves during the coming 12 months. That being said…
My friend, colleague, and fellow Mexican Intellectual, Frank Gaytán, wrote recently about the connection between running and writing when describing his renewed commitment to his own authorship efforts. And while Frank and I indeed have recommitted ourselves to our blogging and other writings, I also am recommitting myself to my running.
I registered for the Chicagoland Half-Marathon challenge last October. The challenge is to complete two half-marathons, one in May and the other in September. I decided to run both races for a couple of different reasons. One is simply that I enjoy participating in distance races like these, as I have written previously. Another reason is for improved physical well-being as I find myself in the thick of middle-age, which has contributed mightily to my middle spread. Finally, 2015 was a difficult year for me and completing distant races in the past always gave me a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. I figure experiencing those kinds of sentiments again would be better than wallowing in self-pity about the year gone by.
To be clear, I do not intend for any of you to interpret what I write here as moralizing as to why people should exercise more or as inspiring to encourage others to embrace new challenges. I am simply stating that I hope the coming months of training will provide me with some new insights to explore further the kinds of ideas I have explored previously in this space. If you have read The Mexican Intellectual up until now, I welcome your readership in the coming months.
Postscript: Preparing for a distance race has a funny side every now and again. As an older runner trying to complete today’s five-mile training run in the midst of Chicago’s snowy, weekend weather, I felt like someone out of Rocky Balboa. I will leave it to you to guess with which character I most identified. Hint: It was not the dog.
