Checksum Arcanius

It’s the end of the year, which means its time for me to look back at my 2009 resolutions to see how well I met my goals:

• Complete a marathon
  Result: Success! I completed the Portland Marathon in October. It wasn’t my best moment, but I did make it. I had to verify that this resolution said “complete” rather than “run” because I certainly did not run the entire marathon.
• Complete an Olympic-length Triathlon
  Result: Failure. Had I been a little more aggressive with my schedule before starting work, I could have participated in an olympic-length race with Kunlun; however, I was not sufficiently on the ball and I missed this one.
• Get a better time on a Sprint Triathlon
  Result: Success! I completed the Seafair Triathlon three and a half minutes faster this year than last year.
• Complete Seattle To Portland bike ride in One Day
  Result: Success! I left Seattle with the first wave at 4:45 am, and many hours later, arrived at the finish line in Portland just after 9:00pm. Apparently, I didn’t blog about this, perhaps because I was preoccupied with my upcoming travels (see next item)
• Visit Australia and Peru
  Result: Success! I traveled to Peru with Kunlun, Scott, and Ben in June. I enjoyed myself, but I’m not itching to go back real soon. I wrote about the trip in five blog posts. I returned home just long enough for the Seattle to Portland bike ride and the Seafair Triathlon, then I headed out for Australia and New Zealand with my parents, a trip that I consider to be the most wonderful success of any trip I have ever embarked on. I definitely have more I want to see and do in Australia and New Zealand.
• Work out (1+ hour) at least once a week
  Result: Mixed. I probably got more exercise than this throughout the week, but often not all at one time.
• Get my Motorcycle certification endorsement
  Result: Failure. I just didn’t get around to this. I will try again next year.
• Complete my Masters degree with a grade at least as high as my Bachelors degrees
  Result: Failure. I’m pretty disappointed with the overall grade I achieved in grad school. If I ever go back, I won’t let it happen again.
• Eat slower, smaller portions
  Result: Partial success. I’m getting better at regulating how much and how quickly I eat, but I still have too many lapses. Fortunately, I’m learning more about myself, which is helping me make progress here.
• Eat only until I’m full
  Result: Partial success. This is of course closely related to the last point, and I have gotten better at moderating my intake at each meal. Again, this is a work is progress.
• Curb over-snacking tendencies
  Result: Success. I’ve found that by limiting what I have around the house, I can control what I munch on much better. This is made a little more difficult by easy accessat work to junk food, but it hasn’t been a major problem, so I feel good about claiming this as success.

Overall, I feel good about my accomplishments this year, even though the failures bite a little, I hope to learn from them and do better next year.

Stay tuned for next year’s resolutions.