When is YOUR Month of Awesome?

I am very happy to report that there is someone to carry on Month of Awesome — a month-long event designed for individuals to set and achieve their personal goals, even if for only one month — after mine ends on Thursday. My Twitter friend KianaB is the first to do so, and is using the month of May. It sounds like she’s trailblazing so far.

With my Month of Awesome coming to a close, I’ve been taking a look at what I’ve accomplished. And it’s a little hard to judge at this point. My personal goals centered mainly around self discipline: eating better (eating less), exercising more (4-5 days/week), sleeping according to a better schedule (fewer naps, no days starting at 9 or 10am), accomplishing more during my work day. All of these things happened. But the first two weeks were such an improvement over the days leading up to Month of Awesome that the last two weeks feel like nothing more than a plateau. And nobody wants to plateau; moving up is the goal.

So with my month winding down and with this nagging feeling that I don’t have enough to show for it, I’ve felt like making this last-ditch effort to add something on, to do something drastic, just to somehow quantify the awesomeness. And the main thing that I keep thinking of doing is to sign up to participate in the 2009 Chicago Marathon. I ran the 2005 marathon and at the time I had wanted to continue to run it yearly, but the long runs burned me out in 2006. So here I am in 2009 in the middle of this month of personal improvement, and it seems like something I could do. Regular registration for the race has been closed for some time, and the only way to join is through a charity team. I ran with a charity team in 2005 (Inspiration Corporation), so running with a charity seems like the obvious choice anyway. (PAWS Chicago has become my default charity in the Chicago area, and they would be my choice this year.) It would seem as if the stars are aligned. I’ve become comfortable with running again (my base run is up to 5 miles now), PAWS still has openings, I’m looking for something to do to punctuate my Month of Awesome, and the window to register is going to close soon … so what am I waiting for?

I just remember how burned out I got in 2006. I love running for fitness, but 8 hours of running per week over 5-6 days, which I’ll have to be doing in just a few weeks’ time … it’s a lot.

So I think that committing to this event just so I can feel better about what I achieved during Month of Awesome is a case of doing a good thing for a bad reason. It’s not something I need to decide just yet. So I’m not going to sign up between now and May 7, my last day of Month of Awesome. I’m going to give myself until June 14, or until I can comfortably run 8 miles, whichever comes first, because according to Hal Higdon’s Marathon Training Schedule, June 14 is the day I’d first have to run 8 miles.

And so Month of Awesome ends on Thursday, and the rest of May will be just a normal month for me. I look forward to seeing if my good habits from the past four weeks stick. And I’ll revisit the marathon idea from time to time, seeing how I feel about that. I’m definitely considering making June into Month 2 of Awesome, but again, it’s not something I have to commit to just yet. Month 2 will always be there, waiting, whenever I need it.