Where did the time go?

Somehow, four and a half months have flown by since my last post. More disturbingly, in about 10 hours I will officially be 27. Yeesh. The birthday challenge thing has been on my mind for months, or really ever since I successfully completed last year's. I have no idea what to do. A few things have come to mind but they're so boring that I'm ashamed to mention them. Beyond that, the ideas I've come up with aren't challenging enough to warrant an entire year dedicated to them. Furthermore, the ideas aren't related to a physical challenge. The physicality of the marathon challenge served (for the most part) to 1. make me proud to divulge my challenge to anyone who was interested enough to listen (or read) 2. get my ass moving, which is no small feat because unfortunately I am, in nature, an extremely lazy person (thanks Mom and Dad...just kidding) 3. carry me through the most incredible experience of my life to my proudest moment. The marathon was BY FAR the coolest thing I have ever done. The entire run went frighteningly well and part of me wants to pull a George Costanza and just quit while I'm ahead "Alright, I'm out. You've been great, thanks." But of course another part of me wants to do it all over again; maybe choose one in an exotic location or convince a few friends to run with me. As much as I wanted to do the Shamrock Run in VA Beach (it's next weekend), that isn't happening. I pretty much stopped running altogether. Ok, not "pretty much". I did. I just stopped. It sucks but oh well. A couple of weeks ago I joined the gym at work with a coworker and we've been going about 3x week. I'd like to get into a consistent routine and get healthy and fit and drop a few lbs before the wedding in May. I am hesitant to say "I want to lose weight for the wedding" because I want to institute a lifestyle change, not a temporary one designed to make me look good for a few days and a weekend of pictures.

So back to the challenge. It seems that a lot of people transition from marathons to triathlons but those don't appeal to me at this point. Maybe one day but not right now. I feel like whatever I choose to do it's got to be very physical and very tough. Unfortunately, I set the bar kinda high with the marathon challenge. How do I top that? Maybe I'm just not thinking hard enough. Maybe the 6 pack of Coronas from last night are impeding my thought process. A few people I've talked to about the challenge have tried to let me off easy this year: "Why don't you make the wedding your challenge?" Well, probably because that isn't a challenge, but a natural progression of a wonderful relationship over 4 years in the making. No bigs. I got that shit in the bag. Seriously though, does anyone have any ideas? Part of the problem is choosing something that isn't going to break the bank. It wasn't too difficult to buy running shoes, socks and sports bras. I also feel like the challenge must have a clear end point or win/lose decision. My 2005 "piano lesson" challenge left me able to tap out a few intros on the keyboard but I never got the feeling that I actually accomplished anything. Perhaps it was the nature of the challenge. It isn't feasible to think that I was going to master the friggin piano in less than a year, especially when I was not apt to put in the practice. I need some sort of finish line to cross or some other indicator that yes, I have achieved what I set out to do. It must be measurable. So there we go. It's got to be cheap and measurable. Hmm. Not quite sure what I can do with that. If anyone has ideas please send them my way. Until then maybe I'll just make this a fitness log (yawn). Must keep thinking...