2018 was supposed to be “THE Year!” I had big plans, see my 18 in 2018 posts.  I was going to write more, run more and be brave. I had big plans and here it is December and I am writing what I believe to be my 3rd blog post of the year, what happened?

What happened? To be honest I’m not sure, I know that 2018 started out with a bang as my BFF and I completed the Dopey Challenge at Walt Disney World in January.  This had been on my bucket list since I first learned about the challenge and now I got to share it with one of my very best friends.  Dopey was great, I hit my goal of riding Expedition Everest (I actually rode it twice) during the marathon and crossed the finish line with an Italian Margarita in my hand.  By all accounts this was my slowest 5K, 10K, 1/2 Marathon and Marathon; but by far I had the most fun ever.  I just can’t explain how magical it is to run down Main Street USA towards Cinderella’s castle as the sun rises and when you do Dopey, you get to do it twice, once during the 1/2 Marathon and then during the Full! 

So I had my list in hand and was ready to hit the road running so to speak, I was going to travel more, run more, kayak more and write more and then… things started to fall apart.  Odd incidents began to happen at work, things that meant having to cancel vacations, taking conference calls in the middle of moving, canceling dinner plans with friends. This is on top of the already ridiculousness that occurs in everyday life as a nursing home administrator.

But the sucker punch to the gut that caught me totally off guard was my 10 year old Pembroke Welsh Corgi, Eddie, getting sick. It started slowly and at first the vet thought it was something simple like Ring Worm, but despite all the medications, baths and treatments he slowly got worse and worse.  My once beautiful boy lost his thick, shinny coat. The dog that never stopped, stopped wanting to walk. My constant companion, my sidekick was dying from lymphoma and I am so sad that it took so long to diagnosis. I think this was the hardest setback to handle. I regret being away from him for so much of this illness as I traveled for personal reasons and to help support my parents. But we did have one last road trip together as we spent a week out in Colorado at my family’s cabin in South Fork. 

I didn’t realize just how hard the loss of my boy had hit me until my failed attempt to foster to adopt the beautiful Loki, a young Border Collie mix who quickly made it clear he was not meant to be an apartment dog.  The physical and emotional scars that Loki left were hard to get over.  I’ve been around dogs my whole like, I grew up with big and small dogs and I’ve never experienced what I experienced with Loki.  I am happy to report that I was working with a great rescue group that was more than willing to take poor Loki back and find the right home for him.

So here we are, December 13th, 2018.  The year is almost over and I am finally able to look back and dare I say breathe a sigh of relief. I have started running consistently again; I’m currently participating in the latest Holiday Run Streak from Runners’ World with the goal of running at least 1 mile every day between Thanksgiving and New Years, today was day 22!  I’ve been able to watch my BFF complete both the Seattle and Dallas Marathons to earn Marathon Maniac Status, and things seem to be settling down at work (knock on wood).

2019 is fast approaching and I am ready to meet it full steam ahead. I’ll get to ring in the New Year with dear friends on the Las Vegas Strip, I am doing some serious work on my mind set, and making plans for some big races in 2019. I am also leaning into my desire and need to write more and share my story, my story is worth sharing and I truly enjoy the process of writing.  Its possible I might actually start to work with and practice the tools I was given when I attended Wilder in May. Oh and Mom, thanks for continuing to encourage me to write when the words just weren’t there. 

2018, you kicked my ass. I am grateful for the lessons learned but I am so ready to push forward and fly into 2019. #headupwingsout