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Aren't New Years Resolutions fun? We hear a ton about people setting them, we hear about people missing them, but when do we have the opportunity to hear a success story? Welcome to my journey, I'm going to have to break up the story into bits and pieces because my mind things about a hundred different things and I'm not quite sure how to segment it all out unless I just write out part by part, so here is my short story, part 1:

Around the holiday season in 2010 I read an article online and I really wish I kept that article because I would really love to give the author credit for their story but it went something like this:

Even though weight loss is a positive goal, most people whom try to lose weight are setting themselves up for failure because its founded on a negative emotion. 

So most people that want to lose weight probably decide to join a gym, do some machines, maybe try some lifting, after all how hard could it be? But to tell you the truth I had no idea how, the article continued by saying:

Try signing up for a 5k or 10k in order to raise money for something near and dear to your heart, if you have a time goal as a part of your fundraising your efforts are yielding a positive result from positive behaviors and weight loss may be a positive side effect.

This makes sense, I'll run a marathon and not raise money for charity, after all this is what I just got done reading? Who the heck knows but as I see it this was my thought process though and eventually it was set, I would run a marathon. At first I was just telling myself, maybe I'd mention something to my wife, then I started telling other people. If you're going to tell someone you're going to run a marathon you better dang well do it right? As I continued to talk about it I had actually convinced myself I could do it.

I researched Twin Cities Marathon, my father George Scalia ran it when he was 50 and my younger brother Robert ran it twice. I remember going to watch my dad run but for some reason I can't recall when my brother did it, or at least I remember him doing it but don't remember going to watch him. Rob let me be my official apology, I'm a jerk and sorry I don't remember supporting you on your marathon ventures big time bad brother syndrom and I appreciate all your support the last three years at TCM. Back on track, I found out Twin Cities opened for registration on February 2nd so on February 1st I went online to sign up at midnight because again if I was signed up I had to do it, right?

I quick checked my email and I still have the auto reply from TCM Confirming my entry into the 30th running of the Twin Cities Marathon. 11:52 pm its time stamped, I could even wait for midnight for registration to open. Its confirmed, race day October 2, 2011 would be my first marathon.