Photo Credit: MichaelJacksonsPictures.com
For the most part.
I’m not afraid to say something really nice about myself. I’ll go ahead and say that I’m brilliant!
Okay, a lot of things from this year wouldn’t lead to that same conclusion – some travel plans not executed as best as they could be, constantly losing everything I own (wallet in Denver, hat in wine country, etc.) But the best decision I made all year was to throw in this three-week break at the end here.
This is the perfect time to start inventorying everything. Okay, I take back the brilliant thing, actually. Let’s get real. I should’ve had lists and things going all along.
Of course, I’ve been flying by the seat of my pants since day 1. It took everything I had just to successfully get myself to all these races!
But now I have time to inventory the shirts, the medals, and the bibs. And the pictures! My gosh, the pictures. I have pictures on my phone, on my desktop, in folder on the computer, in iPhoto. I have a some pictures I ordered that need to be scanned. The pictures are by far the hardest thing to keep track of – to successfully label them all and put them in folders and everything.
This break also gives me time to:
a) better organize the emails of everyone who donated to my fundraising page so I can start an excel spreadsheet with addresses and who’s gotten thank you cards and can start that whole process.
b) make a huge email/snail mail/etc. campaign to everyone I know but have yet to reach out to about running for marriage equality.
This break is lovely. It’s not even necessarily a “break.” Everything I listed takes up time. But I have that time. So, the break was wonderful and I’m very, very glad I set it in the schedule for myself.
But, if I were to go back and do it again, there is one thing about the schedule I’d highly consider changing.
The piece of advice I’d give to anyone doing this in the future – consider going Autumn to Autumn. instead of Winter to Winter. There are TONS of races in the fall. To me, it seems that October/November may just be the biggest racing months. (I’m making this up based on my experience. Don’t take this as fact.)
(May is huge as well.)
Autumn has plenty. The spring has plenty as well. Summer, not so much. May and even June have a ton. But I think you could easily start huge in the fall, get a bunch under your belt, and peter out in July/August. That’s not necessarily the best route to go. I actually really enjoyed ramping up to a three week break then starting the new year with some fun stuff. But Autumn to Autumn is definitely a valid, sound strategy that should be considered.
I’m going to use every day of this break to work toward wrapping everything up, and you’ll hear about any exciting steps. I’m gonna work on getting a page up of photos of all my metals. I’ll probably do one for the t-shirts as well. I have an appointment with a frame store in early January to discuss fun ideas for my displaying my medals. I’ll keep you updated on any of the fun stuff.
If there is anything else you want besides the stuff I listed here that I’m working on – any questions you have, or anything like that – please go ahead and ask them and I’ll do my best to get to them.
Thanks!