Running through January

I have run every day this January.  Let me offer my standard qualifications:  my run is very slow, so perhaps I should use the word "jog" or "shuffle."  It takes me about 15 minutes to run a mile--I realize that many people can walk a mile much faster, and if I focus very intently, I can too.  Some days I run slightly faster than a 15 minute mile, but truth be told, even when I was a teenage runner, I wasn't a fast runner.

For my daily January runs, 4 miles was the standard, with occasional 5 or 6 mile days--and 1 day I did 7 miles. Only one day did I do less than 4--it was a 2 mile run the day after after the 7 mile run.  I have run 146 miles in January.  Wow.   I had seven days of a 5 mile run, 2 days of a 6 mile run, 1 seven mile day, and 1 2 mile day.

I have never run this many days without a rest day.  I've been wondering if I'm courting an injury--that's what conventional wisdom would tell me.  But I also know that conventional wisdom thinks that I'm running much faster than I am.  Likewise the conventional wisdom that would tell me that I'm destroying my knees.  I'm not pounding the pavement the way a faster runner would be.

It's the perfect time of year down here to run--cooler mornings, but not too cold.  I don't know if I'll keep going at this pace as the temperatures heat up.

I started doing this as part of a Winter Warrior challenge.  My sister put together a virtual team, and we log our miles.  At first, I was running because I didn't want to let down the team.  But then as I watched the results, I realized that I was near the top of the long run challenge (my other teammates all signed up for different challenges)--I am inspired to run every day so that I stay in the top 5.

By now, the runners who are into seriously long distances have risen to the top--but there's only 2 or 3 of them.  They're the types who go out for a 13-19 mile run on the week-ends.  There are several of us just below them, and we keep trading places, depending on when we've run and when we've logged the results.  It's been amazingly motivational in a way I didn't expect.

My favorite run was my 7 mile run on Monday, when I went back through Holland Park.  At first I was there because I needed a bathroom, and when I saw the gates were open at 7 a.m., I thought I could find it.  I did, and then I explored a bit.  The park is mainly boat ramps, but there's an eco path, which is a boardwalk out over the water.

It was a quiet day on the water--no boats, no partying across the Intracoastal at 7 a.m.  As I ran along the boardwalk, a giant bird of prey swooshed down towards me; if I reached and stretched, I might could have touched it.

As I watched it fly toward me, I felt more curiosity than alarm.  Would it attack me?  If so, would it hurt?  Would I be able to get back to a place where someone might find me sooner rather than later?  But I think that part of me knew that it wasn't likely to attack me, at least as long as I kept moving and didn't lie down and impersonate a dead carcass.  Of course, even if I did that, the birds above me might not have been interested.

In the end, the bird veered off, across the waterway, to the connected wetlands and water paths that are so unexpected this close to the Atlantic.  I watched the birds swoop around the tree tops and reflected that if I hadn't been trying for a really long (for me!) run, I might never have come back into the park and gone exploring.  I did feel a smidge of fear, but I knew that the park had been locked until the few minutes before I entered.  I was more worried that I might fall and break something than that someone was waiting to attack me--and I certainly wasn't worried about birds or other animals.

The boardwalk was so amazing, that I ran up and down it several times--just beautiful.  Running has given me many gifts, but a fairly consistent gift has been the one of exploring places, especially places in nature, and being awed by beauty.

I'll keep running in February.  I'm not sure what to expect--stay tuned!