Sixty One Days

Back in February, I saw that one of my friends on Facebook had signed up to do a daily running challenge.  The concept was simple.  It was geared to encourage people to run every day.   The invitation read:

March "Run Every Day" Challenge

Who: You
What: Run at least ONE mile each day
When: Everyday in March
Where: Anywhere
Why: To challenge yourself to get out there and run.

I asked myself, "What could go wrong with that?" I hadn't been running very regularly and I thought the challenge would be good for me.  Running a mile wouldn't take long so on those days when I didn't want to run, hopping on the treadmill for 10 minutes wouldn't be too much of a hardship.  So I signed up.  I even recruited a few friends to do it along with me. Little did I know what I was getting myself in for.  

I'll admit, there were days when I really dreaded having to fit my run in, but by the end of March I was so proud of myself for accomplishing that challenge!  I ran at least 66 miles in March (treadmill miles are not super accurate so I just said 1 mile = 10 minutes and left it at that even though I was running faster than that on the treadmill) and considering that I had probably run only 25-30 miles the month prior, I was pretty happy with myself.  Yippee!  Good for you, Deby!  Thank goodness March is over and I can stop running!

Then I saw that there was an April challenge.

April "Run Your Ass Off" Challenge
Who: You
What: Run at least 1 mile each day. If you miss a day you have to run 3 miles the following day... If you miss two consecutive days you have to run 5 miles.
When: Everyday in April
Where: Anywhere
Why: To challenge yourself to get out there and run.

***You are not gonna get the butt you want by sitting on the one you have! 

Here I was, so excited that March was done and I could stop running.  I was so tired of putting the kids to bed, changing into my running clothes, and forcing myself to watch some really dumb crime show while running on the treadmill.  (Speaking of really dumb crime shows, why are there so many of those shows on tv?  Can't the TV people come with something other than reality shows about singing or dramas about catching killers?  I digress.)  But this challenge said I was going to run my ass off, and we all know that I could use a little less ass. ;-)  The March challenge was good for me, but I was really hoping to lose a bit of weight and that hadn't happened, so I was afraid that if I stopped running, I'd gain weight.  I felt like I had to keep running.  I just couldn't let myself stop.

So I begrudgingly clicked "yes" to the challenge and off I went.  Running, running, running.  Every day running.  I got sick, but I still ran.  April gave me 62.5 miles.  Unfortunately, I didn't run any of my ass off and I didn't lose any weight at all.  But I did run 30 more days in a row.  

What's that?  I ran SIXTY ONE days in a row?  Way to go, Deby!  You rock!  (I need to give myself some positive affirmation.)

But there will be no signing up for the May challenge.  Sixty one days in a row is plenty.   I can stop being OCD about running and I'm completely fine with it.  

Then again, the day is not over yet.  I haven't ruined the streak.  There's still plenty of time to get out there...