Palmer's Playground: 26. Time to Change

In an effort to expand my horizons I have designated the year 2011 as the year that I will "break away" from my very regimented life style and remove the shackles that have stunted my personal growth. Many of my critics say that because I'm so predicable my life has become somewhat boring and almost meaningless. They often point out to me that I do the same things over and over....year after year. This may be true however I've always felt that my approach to life has provided me a very successful and comfortable way of living.......until now.

It's awfully hard to get myself out of this very comfortable chair

For whatever reason I just suddenly decided that I needed to get out of my so called "rut." Seeing I'm in love with the number "11" I thought 2011 was the appropriate year to rattle some cages and throw my routine out the window. I mean how much basketball, softball and golf can one man play in his life? How many games can I watch? I knew that I needed to come up with something new in my life. However, before we go any farther please keep in mind that this is going to be a very slow process that will need to start with baby steps....remember, we are talking 56 years of routines to break....and that ain't going to be easy, my friends.

As you can see getting out of this rut will not happen overnight

Changing my of way of life will not happen in an orderly fashion

My general rule of thumb for the year 2011 was simple - "When I have to make a decision....decide to do something completely different than what I would normally do"

Note - This does not mean that I will abandon certain "streaks" that must continue. This is more about my daily approach to life and the decisions that I make each day.

2011 Motto: Always do the opposite

One example of a change that I made to my predictable routine is writing these prattles. I actually started this as a joke last year but in 2011 I decided to get serious about it and continue to add more prattles to my blog. Who would have ever "predicted" that I would do this?.....not me anyway. I still can't believe that people are actually reading this babble of mine....over 3,000 page views of my blog in less than a year?.....hard to believe... having all of these page views does however motivate me to keep adding new prattles to the blog.....a big thank you needs to go out to the one person who has accessed my blog over 3,000 times....you deserve a medal.

Yes!....I can write a prattle about that.....

Another very small step I have taken to try and get out of my comfort zone in 2011 is to participate in 5K runs around the city. In order to run in these races I needed to do things that were way outside of my normal routine on a Saturday morning......(not that running these 5K runs is that big of a deal but it is something that I can write a prattle about).

Time to get out and meet some new people

Breaking the "Palmer Mold" - Example # 1: Running 5K Races: Get up at 5:30 am on a cold Saturday morning....go to a 5K run all by myself........drive across the metro area at 6:30 am.....struggle to find a place to park....ride in a shuttle bus from the parking lot to the starting line.....mill around in the cold weather waiting for the race to start.....look for someone that I may know.....make conversation with people I have never met......run a meaningless 5K at 8:00 am on a cold and windy day with a bunch of strangers.......

I would say that this 5K run scenario is completely different than my normal Saturday routine of sleeping in, going out for breakfast, reading the paper, taking a nap, and going for a run around the lake that is right next to my house later in the afternoon when the temperature warms up....this change was a very small step for mankind but a very large step for Palmer.

I need to break all of my old habits

One of the upsides of running these 5K runs is that it gives me a story that I can embellish in one of my prattles. Let me share a quick story on one of my recent 5K runs....

On April 9th I ran in the first annual "Goldy's Run" which included a 5K run and a 10K run....Goldy???....yes, our very own Goldy.....the one and only mascot for the University of Minnesota....the proceeds for this event went to the St. Jude Medical Foundation.

Yes, I am the best mascot in America!

Goldy was not only the host of the 5K and 10K runs but he was also basking in the glory of winning the national championship of college mascots this year....yes, they actually do have a competition for this honor every year in Orlando....and this year our Goldy brought home the national championship trophy...Goldy is really #1!!

Want to see my trophy?

Goldy was not the only winner from the U of M at this annual competition in Orlando.....the University of Minnesota's Dance Team also came home as the national champions in the "Dance Line" competition (4th national championship in 5 years)....pretty amazing......these championships are great for the students involved and for the University but unfortunately the general public doesn't care about them....the U of M programs seem to be very successful at everything that doesn't really matter........wouldn't it be nice if our football team or basketball team won something like this?....anything......just once...I'd even settle for a conference championship once in awhile....

All we do is win national championships....


As I observed the people who were there to run, I came to the realization that I'm a "tweener"...that is I don't fit in anywhere....the runners were either in their 20's and 30's or in their 70's ....you've all seen these old guys who like to run....rail thin bodies....appear to have run 200 miles a week for their entire lives... of course at the other end of the spectrum I looked with envy at all of the young and very fit runners as they pranced on by me like I was standing still....

This is where I'm headed....

This is where I once was....and where I wish I could be....

I finally figured out why no one my age participates in these 5K runs.....people my age are attending their kid's games on Saturday mornings. (you name the game and it's being played somewhere...year round). Even though I didn't fit into either group of runners I still felt very confident that I would still see someone I know.....(I like to think I know a lot of people, you know).

No time for 5K runs......gotta get to my kid's game

The route they laid out for the 5K run was great because it wound the runners through the U of M campus and finished inside TCF Bank Stadium. I had never really seen the entire campus before so I really enjoyed the run from that perspective. The highlight of the run however was when you entered TCF Bank stadium through the big end zone tunnel and ran to the finish line which was located on the 50 yard line of the football field. There were 810 people entered in the 10K and 1,345 people entered in the 5K so the atmosphere during and after the race was very festive.