Just Do It

"We must do the things we think we cannot do."
-Eleanor Roosevelt

With apologies to the fine people at Nike, "Just Do It" is great advice, and it has served me well in 2010. (Which, by the way, was christened "the year of the Maggie" back in January. Accurate? Perhaps.) This has been a year of doing things I never even considered before. That's an amazing thing.

It all began with the Muddy Buddy race in August. I remember standing there, waiting for our wave to begin, with my friend Mike and his wife Emily. I was petrified. What if I failed? What if I couldn't finish? So many what ifs! But I did it. I completed a course of running (or in my case, walking), biking and obstacles, something I decided to do just because it sounded like fun. Never in my life have I felt the adrenaline of finishing something I wasn't quite sure I could do. And that's what challenge is all about: trying something, being willing to fail, just because you might be able to say, "I did it."

And there have been more challenges. Relay for Life, the Blackhawks 5k, and - coming soon to a city park near you - the Hot Chocolate 5k. My only goal is to finish, and maybe shave a minute or two off my time. But success to me is simply defined by finishing.

Who is this woman who keeps trying new things? What happened to the couch potato? And furthermore ... what's next?