I met the challenge of 100 miles before the end of the year, today, with 18 days to spare. While I am happy about it, I did fail at the writing part of the challenge and I am disappointed in myself about that.

Miles Run: 100.2
Time: 23 hours, 4 minutes, 58 seconds
Miles to Go: 0
Days to Go: 18
Average Miles Per Day Needed: 0

I ran the last 3.7 miles today after being forced to mostly walk the previous miles since 60. The knee injury took running mostly off the table, but I was able to restart a bit a couple of weeks ago. I had everything lined up to finish the 100 miles as part of the Candy Cane 5K that was suppose to be on Saturday, but it was cancelled due to additional Covid-19 restrictions in Pennsylvania.

So, my wife offered to run with me today to finish it, and I am pretty sure I would have walked a significant portion of it without her staying with me. It felt good to be able to finish strong (not walking) and mostly pain free. It was nicer to be able to share that time with Andrea on what turned out to be a beautiful day.

Reflecting on the 100 miles, I am so glad I did it. It feels good to accomplished it, along with some smaller goals along the way. The runs and walks were often just what I needed during some stressful times…times that I would have just let the stress overwhelm me. Instead the runs/walks cleared my head and allowed me to push aside the stress.

Plus, I enjoyed the running itself, more than I ever have enjoyed running. I feel like I’ve been in better shape in the past, but for some reason, this time, I felt overall better through it. I looked forward to today’s run, which I am not sure has ever happened. I was so happy to do this and complete it.

Now I am looking forward to the next challenge and focus on how to stay in shape this winter. Cycling has always been my first love, so I hope to spend some time on a trainer this winter so I can hit the road in the spring. We also have a new rowing machine that I hope to conquer. While we wait for the Covid-19 vaccine to be available, it looks like we will be spending the next few months close to home like the early spring and I believe it will be so important to keep physical activity up to keep mentally fit through it.

And, of course, there is the part I disappointed myself in…Writing. I felt really good about writing through the first 60 miles, and while I could make up a few excuses, I went off the tracks and it was likely simply because I was lazy. I feel like I need to write more. I am not sure how to make that happen, but I have a few things I want to try.

Part of it is mostly just getting past the lazy inclinations I have. I feel like if I apply the same principle as running to writing, I might be able to get past it. The more I ran, the easier it became…The more I write, hopefully the easier it becomes. I had to overcome laziness to run…the hope is I can start to overcome the laziness to write. An object at rest stays at rest…an object in motion stays in motion. I have to figure out how to get in motion. We will see…On to the next challenge.

Andrea found this challenge online to run 100 miles between now and the end of the year. I have been wanting to run more consistently and have also been wanting to write more often, so I thought it was perfect. I figure I could run and document it here in my blog.