Belated New Year's Resolution

During the past few weeks at school I have been working on writing resolutions with my students.  It has been one of my favorite lessons so far: the students had to come up with at least two resolutions for each of the following categories: school, family/home, friends, and health.  Then we would go around the room and read out loud our resolutions to compare and contrast each other's goals.  This not only allowed for students to be a creative and funny, but helped them to practice writing, speaking, and listening in English.  For the more advanced classes we could even get into a discussion about resolutions which was great.  All this resolution chatter has had me thinking about what I want to accomplish in 2012.

So,  I have a little update concerning the Paris Half Marathon: I will not be running it. Now, I do not like to “quit” or “give up” on things but this is a matter I have no control over.  When I went home for Christmas break I had some blood work done to check out my mono levels and they still aren’t quite as low as they should be, which explains why I am still easily fatigued.  Granted, I’m much better than this summer and fall but I am still not “back to normal” and in order to be as healthy as possible, training for/running a half marathon just isn’t in the cards for me right now.  I am most definitely disappointed that I won’t be able to run 13.1 miles in my favorite city but that’s just the way the cookie crumbles.  On the up side, it allows for an extra full day in Paris to spend with my parents when my parents come to visit so I can’t be too upset about that.  While going on runs here tends to make me more tired in the days that follow I have been walking more and avoiding the bus to try and get some low-impact cardio in when I can.  (You know I’m never sad to miss out on riding the bus! Haha)  And Santa brought me these cool earmuffs with headphones in them so I can listen to my iPod and stay warm while walking in the colder weather!  I also hope to use the great winter running gear I received for Christmas in the coming months for shorter runs if I'm feeling up to it. And while I can’t run any races in the immediate future, I hope that by the end of this year I’ll be somewhat back in action to run some shorter races once I’m Stateside! It’s almost been a year since I’ve been able to run so I guess I can’t be too hard on myself…health comes first!

This year my New Year’s resolution is to allow myself the time I need to heal, not feel guilty about it, and re-commit to running once I’m stronger and healthier.  If there’s a will, there’s a way, right?!

Word of the Post: la santé -- health