A look back at 2014

There was A LOT that happened in 2014…almost too much to handle.  I got married to an amazing man and accomplished some pretty lofty goals I set out for myself.  To see all the goals, visit my 2014 Goals tab.  Here are a few highlights…

Qualify for the Boston Marathon

This was my big one, and I did it by the skin of my teeth.  My final time was a 3:34:56 and I needed a sub 3:35 to qualify.  Unfortunately, with the high volume of registration I still did not make the cut to get into the actual race.  I won’t lie- I cried about this for a good day.  But then I set it free, Boston is not going anywhere and I know I will get there eventually.  It was a huge feat for me personally to even post a qualifying time and took a lot of hard work to get there.  My first marathon time was a 4:26 and I never dreamed I could be in the 3:30s!

Don’t let the little things bother me

This was tough, this was a constant work in progress and something I had to be conscious of at all times and still do. With having a stressful year at work, it made being positive and not letting little things get to me very difficult.  But I will tell you what made it easier…time.  This is the first year since I started working at age 14 where I only had one job to focus on.  In college, I worked 20-30 hours a week on top of school and being an ahtlete.  When I started my career at AU, I still babysat, worked odd jobs and did personal training on the side.  Until this year, I worked at least 60 hours a week if not more…every week.  Year after year.  This year, I slowly cut back on my personal training clients and other side jobs because adding grad school in the mix was finally too much.  This was a hard decision to make but it was the best.  If I had not done that, I would have had a nervous breakdown by now.  No doubt.  What does this have to do with not letting the little things bother me?  I have more TIME to focus on the priorities at hand, to reflect and to just be.  I was still crazy busy, but I was not having meltdowns over the silliest things.  I hope I never go back to keeping a schedule like I did, not sure how I did it all those years to be honest with you!

Plan a wedding for under $10,000

Didn’t quite meet this goal, but man did I try.  Our guest list turned out much higher than we anticipated which threw our budgeted numbers off a little (turns out when you date for 9 years everybody wants to come to your wedding).  But we pulled a wedding that had 235 guests off for CLOSE to $10,000!  I have said it before and I will say it again…I would marry Shain all over in a heartbeat..but would NOT do the wedding again. Turns out getting married and having a wedding are not at all related to each other. No sireee not for me.

Purchase NOTHING new (clothes, shoes)

In 2012, I made a challenge to myself to not buy any new clothes for an entire year.  And aside from one purchase at the Chicago Marathon expo, I did it.  I bought nothing else all year.  For 2014, I decided to do the same thing but change it up a little and gave myself the rule of only shopping at second hand stores such as Goodwill, Plato’s Closet, Clothes Mentor & Salvation Army.  There will be a separate blog post coming on everything I found on this fun challenge, I highly recommend doing it!

I am so excited to see what 2015 has in store for me, will update you soon on some of the new things I am going after. How did your goals for 2014 go?  What will you be going after in 2015?  Please do share!