Preface:
Two weeks ago a close friend asked me if I would join her in an exercise challenge to try to help support cancer awareness, running 100 miles all in the one month of January 2022. She told me that this year alone she has had two close friends who were dealing with cancer and that she wanted to try to help make a difference. Because of this, and because cancer has also affected some of my family members, I agreed that I would join her in this endeavor. On paper 100 miles in a month might not sound that difficult, it didn't sound that challenging to me when I agreed to it at least, but now that I'm getting into it, for me, 100 miles will be quite a challenge to overcome.
I'll start off by saying that I really was not prepared for this. I didn't have proper running shoes, didn't know about stretching my muscles before and afterwards, and absolutely didn't know just how long a mile really is to run or even walk. Additionally, I was not in a habit of doing that much cardio on a day to day basis, or in other words, I wouldn't stay I'm in shape athletically. On top of it all, for some reason I didn't think to use the next two weeks to get prepared before the challenge started, so let's just say the first day was a wake up call in a lot of ways.
Day 1:
I'll admit it, I missed running completely on January 1st. I'm not sure if I didn't remember or what, but that left only 30 real days left in the month starting on January 2nd. That morning of the second I did actually make a plan though, I was going to start running to work. Since the 2nd was a Sunday, I used it as a trial day to see how feasible it would be to actually run to work. The first step was figuring out how long it actually was, and thankfully that step turned out to be pretty simple. All I had to do was type my home address and my destination address into Google Maps and select the icon of a person walking, and Google told me the distance it would be and how long they expected it to take for me to get there. In this case, getting to my work location would be 2.6 miles and Google expected it to take about 52 minutes walking at a brisk pace. I wasn't sure whether or not the 52 minute expectation would be realistic or not, and so I wanted to test it for myself.
I was ready to do my first run of the month: a trial run to my work location. I called a close friend and asked if they could pick me up in a few hours from my work, got some shoes and a jacket, started my stopwatch, and set off. I started off by running as far as I could, I figured to give it my all at the beginning at least! But soon afterward I was huffing and puffing and had to walk. Additionally, I started to realize that it felt like I was really spending a long time walking, and really not getting very far...and I was already feeling pretty tired! But I pushed on, and kept going, telling myself that I had to do this! After what felt like 30 minutes to me, I had seen a bird next to the road that I thought was a wild turkey, awesome! So I took out my phone and tried to record a video of it, but then it flew away. Well turkeys don't fly, not like that bird, and I quickly realized that it was a buzzard, not a turkey. The only reason I mention this is that when I got my phone out I also looked at the stopwatch: I had been running/walking for just 20 minutes, even though in my mind it felt a lot longer. I wasn't sure how much farther in miles it would still be, but I started felling a little bit motivated that maybe I could actually make it there in not too bad of a time!
For some reason, and this has also been true every day since, running from that point onward (which I now know to be the halfway point) felt better, faster, and easier. Maybe it was the way the sun finally showered its rays upon me, no longer hindered by the looming branches of the tall surrounding trees, or it could just be a feeling of accomplishment subconsciously cheering for me and revitalizing my spirit. Regardless of why it feels easier, I was really enjoying the second half of my day's running journey! Just 20 minutes later, I arrived at my destination, it had taken me 40 minutes and 26 seconds to travel the 2.6 miles there with a combination of running, jogging, and walking. I was actually surprised at myself that I made it there that quickly, I was really expecting it to take more than an hour!
While I was there, knowing that I can at least make the journey once, I started doing the math to see just how much I would need to make this journey within the month. After some calculations, I had come up with a schedule that would provide me with the 100 miles by the end of January. I would need to run to work 6 days a week, and 3 of those days I would also need to run back home from work. That's 65 miles from the 25 days of the 6 days a week walk to work, and 32.5 miles from the 12.5 days of the 3 days a week work back home from work. Adding in the 2.6 miles from the first trial journey would bring me to exactly 100.1 miles! So now that I had my schedule, I needed to see if I could actually make the trip there and back all in the same day.
Day 2:
Monday morning: 8:00am, I went outside and it was cold, but I started anyway with determination fueling my body. I was trying to push myself harder today, because I had a secret secondary goal in mind. I wanted to get in shape and train enough to be able to run a 5k in 45 minutes. Because of this, my goal by the end of the month is to be able to run the 2.6 mile trip in 30 minutes (shaving 10 minutes off my initial time.) I was feeling tired, but trying my best to push myself and get a better time. I made it to the halfway point and kept right on, still walking whenever I needed to to catch my breath, but also running more often and further than the previous day. Now for some reason every day something special happens to me on these journeys. The first day was seeing the buzzard (and later 6 more on the same trip.) This time, it was an odd little thing, but special to me nonetheless. I was passing a gas station and a car passed behind me that was just extremely loud, ear piercing loud. And a few seconds after that car passed I said to myself (and slightly out loud) "well that car sure was loud and hurt my ears!" Literally the second I said it I looked below me to where my legs had just taken me and I saw something on the ground: an unopened pack of disposable ear plugs! Now I didn't pick it up or use it, but I do appreciate the impeccably timed coincidence. Not too soon afterwards, I had made it to my destination and checked the stopwatch. I really couldn't believe it, but this time I had made the 2.6 mile trip in 35 minutes and 47 seconds, shaving 4 entire minutes off my first time! That really left me excited the whole day at work and ready to face the challenge of the remaining 2.6 miles journey back home.
When I was done with work, and thankfully with enough daylight to guide my way, I started Monday's journey back homewards, it would be my first time running 5.2 miles in a day! I was feeling sore, I really needed better shoes, it was still cold and I didn't have a hat, I was pretty tired from the day at work, but I was still motivated to complete my task for the day! Thankfully about 10 minutes in I got a phone call from my close friend who had first asked me to do this challenge with her. I told her I was doing a run and said that I am really trying to complete the 100 miles for the month, and she talked about her journey so far as well! At the end of the phone call she told me that she really appreciates me trying to complete this challenge with her, and that it really means a lot to her. Hearing this support gave me a boost of energy which was enough to get me all the way home! I had made the journey back in 40 minutes, which was worse than the morning, but still something I was proud of.
Present Day (Day 3):
I know this is a really long post, but I wanted to explain the backstory and previous progress so that I can start posting about each day or so as they pass in present tense now, until the challenge is completed. I didn't post about the until I was this far in because I wanted to make sure I could actually do this before starting my posts about it, and even though I'm sore and tired, at this point I really think I can do it! This now brings me to my running trip today (Tuesday January 4th) and how it went!
I woke up this morning feeling very sore and stiff in my legs, and in fact the night before I had some pretty bad leg cramps. Because of this, I made the decision that I really need to be stretching before and after each run and additionally a few times throughout the day. Additionally, I decided that today I was only going to walk the 2.6 miles and not try to run or jog. This morning it was really, really cold, but as I walked outside I saw an old grey haired man walking just like I was going to, and I figured if he could do it in the cold, so could I, and so I set off! One side note, I still don't have good shoes, and I also still didn't bring a hat, but tomorrow I'm going to have a new (to me) pair of running shoes and a hat to wear! Walking there was taking longer, I could feel it, but it was giving my muscles a much needed break. I also made sure to eat a very filling and protein packed breakfast this morning so that I didn't feel lightheaded while walking to work. Getting there was going well, and just like the last two days something unique happened, although today it was a little bit scary.
At the same gas station as the day before there is a four way stop light. Today, there were two cars, a grey and a white one, going the same way on the road towards the stop light. The grey car was first followed closely by the white one, and they were still pretty far away from the light when it turned yellow. I promise you the grey car did nothing wrong as far as I could see, but while it was stopping for the light it was very nearly rear ended by the fast paces white car; all of a sudden the white car had blared its horn and swerved to the other side of the road and ran the red light! As far as I could tell the white car was rushing somewhere and didn't see the grey card stopping at the light (or didn't want them too), and was going so fast they had to move into the lane of incoming traffic to prevent rear ending the grey car. Thankfully there were no cars in the incoming traffic lane and additionally no cars driving past the intersection yet, and somehow thankfully nobody was in an accident, but being right there to witness it was quite sudden and frightening! After that I made sure to really stay safe on the road from cars just in case there were other people rushing around, and I made it safely to work. Today on my third day of making the trip, but only walking, I made the 2.6 mile trip in 51 minutes and 51 seconds, almost exactly what Google Maps thought it would take!
I'm excited to continue this challenge every day and work towards reaching my 100 mile goal by the end of the month, and I'm going to continue as best as I can to push myself every day! I'm going to try to do shorter and daily or every other day posts just to keep updates and also share whatever unique things I experience along the way, and I really appreciate you taking the time to read this first really long post! Please comment to connect with me about feedback, questions, tips, or anything else, and let me know what type of journeys or goals you are working towards! I'm feeling really good about this new year and think that attempting this challenge of running 100 miles in 30 days is really helping me to start the year off well! Thank you for reading and being a friend!
-Ace
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