Most New Year’s resolutions focus on stopping something negative: quitting smoking, laying off the fast food, putting laziness aside and starting an exercise regimen. I like making goals rather than resolutions – they’re more fun and easier to remember and measure.
My top goal this year? To run at least 1,000 miles during 2012. That shouldn’t be too difficult, really, as long as I don’t completely punk out. I officially started my training plan yesterday for the Berlin Half-Marathon, so many of those miles should be under my belt by April 1.
I’m doing a Hal Higdon training plan for this half, one that’s more challenging than my other half-marathon training plans. Having a Garmin watch this time around (I sound like a spoiled American when I say that I now can’t live without it) plus harder training should put a sub-2-hour half well within my reach.
Aside from running, I gotta get more travel under my belt in 2012, in Senegal and beyond. On my list for this year:
1. Cape Verde
I want the beach and the music and some Portuguese food in my belly.
I will hike you, Mount Fogo.
2. The Gambia
English-speaking, pretty, not too far from Dakar.
A busy street in Banjul, the Gambia
3. Freetown, Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone is on the up (hello, they’re getting a Hilton). Comes recommended from a friend.
Freetown, a.k.a. Libreville
4. More travel in Senegal
I don’t want to leave my dearest Senegal having been confined mainly to Dakar. I want to go desert-camping near Mauritania. I want to visit the old town of Saint Louis. I want to go to Popenguine, about 70 km south of Dakar, a place known for cool beaches.
Popenguine
Rachael Cullins is a twentysomething American girl living in Dakar, Senegal, with her husband and two dogs. She blogs about her adventures in Senegal and travels elsewhere in West Africa. She will reside in Dakar until summer 2013, when she and her family will move to another foreign post as part of her husband’s career with the U.S. government. In addition to West Africa, she has traveled to France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Italy and Costa Rica and plans to continually add to that list.
