For Better Or Worse…..

For 119 days I ran. Everyday. No matter what. No less than 3 miles. Some days 15 or 20 miles. Some days I ran twice. Why? Because I was “Streaking”. At first, it was just because the days ran together. In fact, it is common for me to run 10 or 12 days in a row without taking a day off. I don’t really know why or when the VOICES decided I should streak. It just kind of happened quietly.

I fully expected the streak to end at 48 days. But on the day after the 53 mile run at the Relay For Life, the VOICES had me throwing down a 5 miler on the treadmill. Okay…. Then I thought it would end at 77 with the “non-training, almost drowning, non-bike riding, I forgot how to run a 5k, Tri”. Nope. The VOICES wanted more.

At 100 days and 700 miles the VOICES were happy and ready to call it good. This is where I took over and “sold out”. I got wrapped up in the numbers. It was like a crazy addiction. Like I had to prove that I could just keep going. On day 115 I felt a pain in my calf around mile 4 but I HAD to finish the 6 miler. By the end of the run the pain was intense and I could barely walk. The next day I ran 3 miles. On day119, it was a 10 miler and I was convinced there wasn’t a problem.

That night I posted the “StreakDay 119” pic online. I had to let the world know about this amazing feat…. that is when the VOICES took charge. That is when the “Streak” came to an abrupt end. I realized then that I wasn’t training. I hadn’t been racing. My intensity level was below par. My focus had been lost. The numbers had become more important than the running. More important than the journey. More important than my competitive spirit. Only 119 days and I had become this dude…. sad.

Lesson learned. The “Streak” wasn’t entirely bad. 119 days, 835 miles…. I’ll keep those numbers and I enjoyed most of it and will probably streak again at some point. For better or worse, it was an awesome learning experience.

The focus is back. With a 50 miler coming up in about a month- and a sweet little 50k a few weeks later, it’s time to get my act together and put some real numbers on the board.  After that……. uhhhh….. we’ll talk about that later. Right now I’ve got a minor injury that needs some dirt rubbed on it. Then it’s time to get back to bidness…..