Records and resolutions

This is the time of year when everyone is trying to stick to the resolutions they made for the new year. Personally, I have never really cared for resolutions, especially the ones that aren't about an ongoing change in the way you conduct your life, or your interaction with others. I especially dislike what I call "destination" resolutions, where one vows to "lose 20 pounds by June", and then how one addresses what you are going to do for the rest of the year goes unanswered. In running, we sometimes have a resolution about qualifying for Boston or a new PR for the 1/2 marathon, but most of the time I encounter my fellow runners trying for a "record", not a resolution.
I know someone who has run all the Twin Cities and all the Grandma's marathons. Pretty cool, and he gets treated as a VIP every year that he extends his streak. Then there are those who have run a marathon in each state, and I also know someone who ran a marathon in each state in a 12 month period. I remember meeting a couple, both retired physicians, the morning of the Seattle Marathon and they revealed that they both run a marathon every week somewhere in the world. Impressive, especially considering that his times were always sub 3:45. But, on my flight back, I thought about them and realized they were pursuing something that really wasn't anything more than a personal goal and not something that anyone tracks as a "record". Unlike the 50 states folks, there is no website or embroidered patch for the couple I met. All this came back to me when I was approaching my 60th birthday. About 8 months in advance, I had already run 53 marathons and someone suggested that I try to run 60, or one every month by my birthday. I was intrigued by the idea until I realized that it was also not a "real" record and that no one would really care, other than myself, and that it would only reinforce the "crazy" tags we runners get meeting non-runners at cocktail parties or business meetings. To non-runners, finishing one marathon is impressive and an accomplishment that a very small percentage of the population ever achieves. Is running 60 marathons by the time you are 60 even something that is better than running 55 (which I had done when I turned 60)?
It was all put in to perspective when I was working a booth at the Medtronic Twin City Marathon Expo, (while still deciding if I wanted to establish my "record"). Someone in the booth bragged to a visitor that "Jon here has done 53 marathons". Someone with him pointed across the aisle and said "Alan, over there has done 320" and my friend Craig stopped by an hour later and announced that he was now doing a marathon or an ultra in every week and state next year. Suddenly, I saw the meaningless nature of what I was about to embark on, and decided not to pursue it. I have now run 55 marathons with out dropping out until Chicago last year. So that "record" fell.
I hurt my calf last weekend and have not run all week..................it was a new "record".