Bucket List: Item #1, DONE!
Have you seen The Bucket List? If you haven’t, you should. Excellent flick! But really, how can you go wrong with a film staring Jack Nicholson & Morgan Freeman?
This past weekend, I accomplished the first thing on my bucket list. I completed the Lake Minnetonka Half Marathon. I ran 13.1 miles in 2 hours & 27 minutes. That means I was running an 11:16 mile. There were 2468 participants and I finished better than 213 of them. Of those there were 1384 women, I finished better than 151 of them. Are these outstanding numbers? No, by far I wasn’t fast or at the front, but I did it and that is what counts. Having been 2 or more weeks behind in my training (due to the Turf Toe), I was nervous about just finishing, let alone finishing it while running and I did!
It shocked me how much this event meant to me. As I was running there were several times I couldn’t stop but smiling because I was still running and didn’t feel like I was going to pass out. Don’t get me wrong, my feet hurt, my shins hurt, my hips hurt, but I was still running! As I rounded the corner to the finish line, I started to get choked up! I actually held a few tears back. As I crossed the finish line, I groped at the volunteer who was holding the finishers medals. I wanted to feel that medal in my hand, to know that I really did it and I didn’t dream it. As I searched the crowd for my Mom & Step-Dad (who got up at 3:15AM to drive up to Wayzata to watch me) I had an even harder time holding back the tears. As I hugged my mom I just cried! I couldn’t believe after the last year of ups and downs of training and the disappointing of having to drop last year’s half marathon, I finished! The tears quickly subsided to a sense of euphoria or a runner’s high. What a great accomplishment. I know there are people who do a full marathon (26.2 miles) in only 3 hours, but I don’t care!! I ran a half marathon!
On the way home, and yet today, it has a very surreal feeling to it (other than the constant ache in my shins & hips). I can’t believe I did it and I can’t believe it’s over already! It seems like I’ve been waiting for this for so long, training since the end of January! But, it’s a good thing that I having another one scheduled for June 5th, in which I will be running the Dam 2 Dam 20K (12 miles). I’m looking forward to the next 3 weeks of training to improve my stamina and hopefully, in return, my time!
I don’t know what else is on my bucket list (other than to be married, have kids, etc.) but at this point I don’t really care. I’m 28 years old and completed my first item! 
I’m interested, dear readers, what is on your bucket list? What is it that you want to do before you die? You never know…I might want to join you! 
4 comments
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A very big congratulations on your accomplishment! Quite something, especially since it’s not something I think I’d ever be able to do (well, able, yes, but willingly? probably not.) The sheer thought of running that far makes me all wobbly.
Bucket list? Well, I kinda do, kinda don’t — it’s so hard for me to come up with one because it changes all the time, and I dislike being petty about things. I also always have this sense of, “if I make one, then if I don’t do all of them, I’ll feel like hell” and so maybe if I don’t make one, I’ll feel more accomplished? I dunno.
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Thank you!
I agree with you to an extent as far as feeling “trapped” into having to accommplish your list and if you don’t, feeling like a failure. I agree and that it probably why my list is so short at this point! As I think about the things I’d like to do or accomplish before I die, they must be realistic. If I said, I want to meet Nelson Mandela, then that might be a bit far stretched, so I’m trying to chose things that might just push or nudge me a little bit from the comfort zone I live in, but not take me so far out I couldn’t reel myself back in!
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Bravo. I am proud of you for sticking with it and not giving up on your goal.
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I’ve enjoyed reading your blogs!! Thanks for sharing your intimate thoughts, goals and dreams!
I’ve had a bucket list since my freshman year of college. (Though it wasn’t called a bucket list back then!) I used to print it out with tiny font so it was about the size of a business card, laminate it, and keep it in my wallet. It was hard to cross things off like that, so I have since stopped carrying a list with me, though on occasion I do make a list of short-term goals. (Like when winter was getting really long this year, I made a “things to do before spring comes” list, and I’m sure I’ll make a list of “things to do before we move back to Indiana.”)
I noticed when I kept them written out, that it helped make me more determined to accomplish my list. For example, when I studied in England, I made a list of places I wanted to see while I was over there. One of them was Auschwitz the concentration camp in Poland. A friend and I tried several times to get to Poland from Austria and we finally decided to skip it because it was going to be “too hard” and “too time-consuming” to get there. We were on the train to Vienna, my friend asleep, and I pulled out my list. I saw all the things I had accomplished since I had arrived in England, and I saw that Auschwitz was one of only a handful of things left, and I became determined to get there. It took us an extra day to get there, and an extra day to get back, but it is honestly one of the best “stories” I have from my time in England, and one of my all-time favorite memories.
With that said, I think it’s important to allow your bucket list to change. The things I thought I wanted when I was in college I don’t really want anymore. My goals have changed, and you have to have the courage to allow yourself to change your bucket list.
Anyway, here are a few things on my bucket list:
Visit all 50 states.
See the world’s largest pipe organ
Become successful enough as a photographer to be able to quit my day jobs
Have kids and raise a family
See Styx in concert
Join a bowling league
Get another lens for my camera (50mm 1.2 AF-S, if you want to know!)
Photograph City Methodist Church in Gary, IN
Give back to the people who have supported me. (I don’t know how, yet, but I’m hoping I’ll know when the time comes)
That’s enough for now. I’d love to see more of whats on your list though.