I’m cooking and writing again. In the past five-ish years, I picked up running. Being a runner means my time management skills have improved immensely. This makes my Type-A personality happy when I plan my running schedule for the week on Sunday night. Until very recently, I never considered myself an “actual runner”. I ran sporadically, usually out of boredom or as a quick fix to solve a problem in my life or a recipe that didn’t make sense.

 

I am constantly “in my head”. I take things personally. I have tissue-thin skin. I try to decipher tone via text. I like having time alone; listening only to my feet hitting the trail and the quiet whirring of my brain while I sort things out.

 

Running is something I do for me. I don’t run with others. I’m slow and awkward, and I’m always scared that people I run with will have to slow down for me. So, I run alone. And I love it.

 

My college buddy Matt Elder and I met in Election Statistics (it was as exciting as it sounds) class years ago. His favorite modern president is Kennedy and mine is Reagan. Somehow, we are still friends. (He also named his dog after Theodore Roosevelt – so there’s that.) We’ve survived two presidential elections, too many terrible Colorado Rockies’ seasons, and many, many pints of delicious Colorado craft beer.

 

We were political science students together and I was one of maybe three Republicans in the entire program. I’m being serious; I went to school in Denver. Political boundaries have never deterred me. Some of my closest friends are the absolute opposite of me, which is both maddening (for me) and hilarious (for bystanders).

 

But we’ve never run together. That will change. I challenged Matt to 35 miles in 35 days. Matt’s wife, Lauren, is also a runner and is up for the challenge. Each of us will run at least one mile per day from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day.

 

We’ll be checking in with each other regularly and giving each other hell for not showing up. They live in Wisconsin but that will not stop us from holding one another accountable and getting some miles in.

 

Matt and Lauren are coming to Denver for New Year’s and we’ve already planned a Denver Brewery Run. I’m already working on the brewery tour list, and figuring out mileage. It only has to be a mile, but rules are rules.

 

And I think we are gonna need t-shirts.

 

On a somewhat related note: I am giving up alcohol for the entire month of December. If you know me and my unadulterated love for craft beer and red wine, you know that this is going to be a great challenge. But I am also training for two, maybe three, half marathons before June 2014 and I want to get a head start on all the New Year’s Resolution suckers. I may be tweeting and Instagram-ing pictures of the copious bottles of water I will be drinking.