The picture sat staring at me from my Facebook feed.  A delicious, icy, salted Margarita. By far, my favorite cocktail.

“It’s arrived,” read the caption. “Ditch Your New Resolutions Day! Tell us which resolutions are going bye-bye.”

I guess it is entirely my fault for exposing myself to it by being a fan of the Jose Cuervo Facebook page, but it still kind of pissed me off.

Do we really need to encourage people *not* to keep doing they healthy things they vow to do on New Year’s day just to sell products? Depending on the product you’re shilling, particularly if its booze, cigarettes and junk food, I guess it’s necessary.

Regardless, I’m still resolved. Resolved to do what I committed to do the first of the year. I’m still resolved to run four races before I turn 40 in October and raise money for four great charities in the process. It is called my Four before Forty project.

Training started in earnest last week.  While I’m very rusty, I’m able to get through about four miles, although I’m walking about half of it at this point. So far, I’ve only been training on the treadmill. I know from past experience that it will be a huge shock to the body once I switch from treadmill training to street running. Unfortunately, living in New England, I may not get a chance to get in much street running before my first race, the Third Annual Michael McCaffrey Hope Challenge 5k on March 9th.

Until that day, I’m also resolved to keeping my friend Ali’s memory alive – via this blog, and via my fundraising efforts.  Ali died on December 28th at age 40 after living with lung cancer for over two years. A beautiful, inspiring light was extinguished too early, and I won’t let that go unnoticed.

I’ll write more about Ali in another post. But, for now, won’t you visit my fundraising page and learn more about Ali and the fight against lung cancer?