My Bucket List – 2010 Late Summer version

Qualifying for Boston was the biggest goal in running I’ve had – after completing my first marathon.  A few weeks before Grandma’s this year (the race in which I qualified for Boston), I thought, what if I actually qualify – what next?  I’m not sure….

I then got on a kick one day measuring time.  Questions like how many days have I been alive, how many minutes, etc.  Then I calculated how many days until I turn 40 – it was like 1087 or something like that.  I then figured out what day it was when I had 1000 to go – I marked that on the calendar and decided I’d better plan something big for the year I turn 40 – an iron man, an ultra, a bunch of marathons – who knows.  Well, I’m now in the 980 day range and I’m still not sure what I want to do that day/year.

Finally, I was reading an article in the Star Tribune about Bud Grant and how his attitude on fishing has changed over the years.  Here’s the article and here’s the part that got me thinking:

he’s (Bud Grant) transitioned as an angler from someone who once wanted to catch the most fish, then the biggest fish, then the most and the biggest fish in the farthest-most places, to someone less ambitious.

So, I started to think about my running and what I want to do while I still can.  Here’s the start of my list:

• Run the Boston Marathon – I’ve done the hard part, qualify, now I just have to run it in April 2011.
• Spend a day going on a runabout – Just run out the door one morning with a credit card, phone and some water and head in one direction – call my wife to come and get me when I’m passed out in a ditch.  Hopefully sometime in November this year!
• Run the Big Sur Marathon – I lived in San Jose, California in ‘97 and ‘98 and this was my favorite place out there.  Someday years down the road.
• Run an Ultra Marathon of some sort.  Both of these look cool – we’ll see…someday, maybe when I’m 40.
• Complete and Ironman – I was shooting for this for my 40th year – not sure, we’ll see.  I’ve got a couple of friends who did Ironman Wisconsin a couple years ago and the stories were amazing.
• Raise $10,000 for charity by running by the time I’m fourty.

These are long term hopes – time will tell if I actually do any of them and they may change.  I know I’ll end up happy just to be out on the run.