Wow! What an awesome experience!! I’m just going to do this and get it over with — I’M SO PROUD OF MYSELF!! I’ve got to hand it to myself, I’ve never imagined participating in a running streak, maybe because I never seriously thought about doing one at all. But I’ve got to say, this was probably one of the funnest, yes I wrote funnest, running experiences I’ve had!!
The last remaining days looked like this:
Day 31: 5.14 miles
Team NutriBullet didn’t have a mandatory run scheduled so I was planning on joining up with the Leggers again. However, that didn’t bode over well since I overslept to 8AM and both groups had already taken off at that point. Looks like a solo run it was going to be. Unfortunately, I didn’t get out the door until 10AM and the weather was warming up quickly. I wasn’t prepared and I ran out of water. Ugh.
Day 32: 5.15 miles
Trail run! It’s been awhile since I’ve been on a trail and I could feel the lack of fitness. January should have me spending a little more time on the trail since I have a race coming up in a few short weeks. Yikes!
Day 33: 4.06 miles
My iPod got me through these miles because such good songs kept coming on! I have an old iPod Shuffle that doesn’t allow you to skip songs or adjust the volume. Until it finally up and quits on me, getting a brand new one isn’t a financial priority for me. It works just fine so why fix what isn’t broken? Okay, actually it is broken, but it still does the job just fine. 🙂
Day 34: 4.36 miles
I made sure I went to the gym today so I could see the gym attendant before 2014. He’s a very cool guy and I’ve seen him few times a week for the past few years so I had to make sure to wish him a Happy New Year. I did feel a little tired and sluggish, but overall the run itself was good.
Day 35: 5.51 miles
Happy New Year!! I didn’t have an exact plan on this last run of the streak. I stayed up way late, but woke up really early. After 5 hours of sleep, I was caught in this web of being too sleepy to stay awake, and yet, I was too awake to fall back asleep. What to do? Well I was stuck in this limbo state deciding what should I do for my last run. I could go to the gym. It opened early so all those newly motivated people can start on those resolutions. Or I could also just run outside in my neighborhood. I finally decided on a trail run. Why would I want to be inside the gym when it was so beautiful outside?! Besides, I need more time on trails so it was a win-win! As tough as these runs are, I always feel so good afterwards.
And with that, this run marked my completion of the Runner’s World Holiday Running Streak! It was my first run in the new year. It was my first trail run in the new year. And it was my first time running into a coyote! I’ve been on trails for a little while now and usually I just encounter critters scurrying through the leaves, or hearing rattlers in the brush, or encountering deer. But as I was near the end of my run, I turned a corner and immediately saw a smaller, leaner version of a brown German Shepherd just about to walk up the mountain. It stopped when it heard I stopped, and then it quickly turned around to eye me. It just stayed still. I just stayed still; at least for a few seconds until I slowly backed away. I decided to turn away from it and as I was turning the corner again, I looked back towards it, to see if it moved. No. It was still standing there eyeing me. I waited about a minute and then looked towards it again. Finally it started to continue walking up the mountain. This was my cue to start descending again and I stayed farthest away from where I knew it was. Once I was a good distance, I picked up my speed again. Running downhill made that easy to do. So that was surely a first!! And “the end” of my first running streak! Yay!!
Actually I’m kind of hesitant to say the end of my running streak because a part of me wants to continue and a part of me does want a day off. Not a day off where I just have to run a mile, but an actual day off where no running occurs. At all. None what-so-ever. But I had such a good time with this! I’m really so proud of myself for finishing something I set out to do and it only further instilled in me to finish the things I set out to do in life. This was fun and I had a great time seeing other runners post their experiences and photos on Twitter and Instagram.
I see there are goals of running 2014 km or 2014 miles this year. I know there is a goal of running everyday for a 365 day running streak. I really don’t know if I’m up for this. I guess I’ll find out come tomorrow when I decide whether to run or not.
Running Streak Total Miles: 122
Average Distance in 35 Days: 3.48571429 miles/day
Thanks for reading and Happy Running (Streak)!