The 100 Day Run Challenge – Something Worth Bragging About?

There Are Always Higher Mountains To Climb

What is a 100 Day Run Challenge you ask? If you started doing something today, think about it- anything.. with the intent of doing it again tomorrow, and then again the day after, and then the day after that, and continuing on.. not something you had to do mind you, like a “job” (which even then you typically get weekends off), but something you chose to do.. is there anything you can think of (honestly) that you’d want to do for a hundred days? And is there any chance that it would be running? And if so, even then.. for at least a mile?

I read something recently about an older gentleman 110+ years old that was still running marathons or some type of long distance events at his “advanced” age, and I thought to myself, “Wow, something special has got to be driving this guy- just living to that age is incredible, and yet he’s not satisfied if he’s not still accomplishing something.” I can’t help but wonder what he thought about when he started out on a run, as well as what he might have hoped to see along the way.

I definitely know what got me started on my “running journey”, but I will admit, I often have to find reasons to keep it going. Especially after I “accomplish” or “reach” whatever goal or motivation it is that I might have set for myself, however big or small it might have been (and lol I really haven’t set any BIG challenges, so I don’t have much to brag about).

Anyway, this is just me trying to explain away my approach to conquering boredom and/or monotony, that (for me at least), is inherent with distance running, and my perspective on finding new reasons to keep on going.

A New Challenge Comes About

Looking back now I will honestly say that once I got into the “routine” of running every day (you could metaphorically say I found my “Rhythm”, albeit on a grander scale) it seems to have been pretty easy (although that definitely was not the case on the inter-day, or even more so, minute by minute experience- especially when you’re in that minute), but after I successfully completed my “30 Day Challenge to Myself” (which I’ll admit was grueling), and then continued it out for another 30 days on the quest to run my first “Official 5K Run” (which I’ll admit was rewarding), I was left without an (immediate anyway) goal. After running this far and for so long, I was suddenly left with nowhere to go. So I figured, what did I have to lose (other than my self-esteem and pride) if I “kept it going” to see how far I could actually take it (or perhaps, how long I could tolerate it), so from there, I set out (better wording, “goal extended” myself again) to see if I could accomplish a new personal challenge of maintaining my practice of continuous daily runs (of at least 1 mile/day), out to 100 days.. and hence, I saw my next mountaintop, “The 100 Day Run Challenge”.

Where You’ve Been And Where You Have Yet To Go

It all started for me with an initial goal of running in a “real” 5K race, that I then “micro(goal)dosed” (lol) with a supplemental goal of running for 30 consecutive days. All the while hoping (which was honestly my real motivation) that if I could find a way to keep things up/going long enough, that I might actually fit (properly) into my tuxedo in October for a very special family function.   

So like any run, it all starts with the first few steps. I went from a few random days in January and February, to 30 consecutive days in March, and then 30 more in April, and near the end of which, I also participated in an official (my first) 5K run.

Looking now at what would be my new “100 Day Run Challenge”, with a total revised commitment spread out to over 3+ months, (and yeah granted, I’ve already got 60 days in the books, but there’s still another whole 40 to go, so I’m barely only over halfway done), I’ve now got to manage to find a way to lace up my runners and get myself outside or downstairs every day, while also (at times) convincing myself that I don’t have COVID or some other health/physical concern (i.e. basically any real physical or psychological run-debilitating medical condition).

Also, to make things really fun, summer was just starting so the temperatures were rising, and in addition to that I had a calendar full of engagements (business as well as personal) that involved considerable travel, that I now had to coordinate for and/or arrange around, to incorporate/commit to a daily run. The days of an occasional lazy treadmill run in the basement were over. But then again, this was in large part my initial goal– to do something I hadn’t done before, and to not let anything stop me. By this point, I had come to understand/define that motivation as the Joggernaut’s creed- which is simply, “get there”.

My 100 Day Run Challenge – Accomplished

Having had just completed my first 5K run at the end of April, I had pretty good momentum going into May, and I was focused and intent upon continuing my stretch of daily runs. And while it definitely wasn’t always easy (and I’m not even talking about the actual running part), I managed to find a way- whether it was running at 1:00am in the morning (ugh, brutal, several times), or in the rain (because I was traveling and didn’t have access to my treadmill), to get my “daily mile” in.

As miserable as I was at the time doing those runs (and some were really bad), looking back at them now, they are some of the most rewarding memories I have contributing to the achievement. It’s the exceptions to the norm that are required to make something truly special, and although it was only a handful of times over the course of what, a little over 3 months.. it was on those occasions where I had to dig the deepest to keep going, that put (for me anyway) value on my efforts.

What also coincided with (or at least was close to it) my 100 Day Run Challenge accomplishment, was the realization of my second “Initial Goal”, which was my weight loss goal (or at least what I had set as my unofficial target for it), of getting to under 200 pounds. It was in the first week of June that I saw a number looking down at the scale that I honestly hadn’t expected to see for a few more months (and quite frankly, wasn’t sure that I’d ever see)- 198.6 (and lol not even like 199.8, where I just scraped by!). So here I am, beginning of June now, and granted I put a good bit of work (based on the sweating) into it, I’ve crossed the 5K finish line, and also the >200lbs bathroom scale display- now if I could just figure out how to get someone/anyone to read my blog, I’d be accomplishing what I set out to do!

My March and April numbers I had been posted in previous articles, but I’ve included them again below just to display continuity if anybody is actually reading this, and is really interested in how the overall “Challenge” timeline transpired. In addition to the monthly numbers, I also posted summaries or recaps for the month’s as well as the running aggregate. Anyway, here are the results of my efforts:

March

Recap for March: Month Miles: 87.72, Month Time: 18:54; YTD Miles: 135.70, YTD Time: 29.23

April

Recap for April: Month Miles: 84.29, Month Time: 17:56; YTD Miles: 219.99, YTD Time: 47:19

May

Recap for May: Month Miles: 82.08, Month Time: 17:16; YTD Miles: 302.07, YTD Time: 64:35

June

Recap for June: Month Miles: 86.89, Month Time: 19:04; YTD Miles: 388.96, YTD Time: 83:39

Progress Comes in Waves- Finding New Goals

Ok so the 100 Day Run Challenge might not have been the goal I started with. But what definitely helped motivate me when I first got started, was the prep for my first official 5K run. In all honesty, I expected it to take a lot longer for me to get to that accomplishment than it actually did- and while that’s certainly a good thing, it was also surprisingly a bit detrimental. Once accomplished, the luster of the goal faded. Now sure, I could always schedule to run another 5K event, but the initial excitement and thrill just wasn’t there for me anymore. And for some reason I can’t explain, I really had no desire to run further distances, like trying to do a marathon (believe me I have ALL the respect in the world for real long-distance runners, but it just isn’t me). On one occasion in June I ran 5 miles (just to see if I could do it), took me over an hour.. just WAY too long. I’m finding out it seems the hardest thing to do is to set goals that are achievable, yet still difficult enough that they continue to drive (or carry) you onward.

What also contributed to my “goal dilemma”, was that my target of losing weight had by this point had also been pretty much realized. Again, fantastic, unexpected results and I’m not all complaining, but the goal that fueled that fire, although not extinguished, had been severely cooled.

With a bit of introspection (and comments from my wife about eating like a bird and running every day), I acknowledged (convinced myself) that I wasn’t just lucky that things happened so quickly for me. I accepted that the success I realized was earned, and that it was the preparation, consistency, self-belief, and determination, that generated the results for me faster than I had expected. In that moment of acceptance, I felt as though I had discovered something secret, because I am not special, yet I had figured out (stumbled across) a way to get results quicker than expected, redefining what I thought was possible.

You Need To Stop Losing Weight

I can’t help but find it a bit humorous (although I can’t call it hypocritical because I considered taking them too) that with all the weight loss drugs available on the marketplace today, that virtually everyone either is, and/or knows somebody that’s taking something to lose a few pounds, my wife as well as several neighbors actually told me that I, “needed to stop losing weight”. None of the customary (or courteous?), “Oh, you look really good”, and/or “Wow, your diet and exercise program seem to be working pretty well for you”, but rather, I get “Ok, enough already, you don’t need to be losing any more weight, you’re not 17!” At least on a positive note though, no one asked me (unfortunately like someone we do know that’s taking Ozempic), “Ohhh, what’s wrong with you, are you sick?”

If You Can Put It In A Bottle..

So I’m going to leave things off at this point with a comment that my wife made (that she said ironically, right after telling me that I needed to stop losing weight), which was, “If you can put whatever it is you’re doing in a bottle, sign me up I’m buying it.” Well, FWIW I had been doing a lot of research into weight loss, as well as developing my own personal regimen/combination of supplements that I felt were providing me with the best results, so that sideways comment was all the encouragement I needed to start working on a real program. It still needs some refinement, but here’s a preview of what’s coming: