What I Learned From Running For 100 days Straight

I stood by my claim that running is ridiculous unless chasing something until that evening in spring 2014. I went for a walk. It wasn’t long….it wasn’t fast….and I was wearing a normal dress (need I say more?) I got back home and I felt an overwhelming sensation. I absolutely loved it. So, I kept going on these slow walks and jog and run here and there. I decided shortly after starting that a self-supported half marathon should be on my life bucket list. By fall, I did a self-supported half marathon in Florida downtown – it was so hard, but I did it!

Running streaks have to start somewhere and it was a few years ago, I started my 1st HDOR running challenge in 2017. I went on to run for complete 100 days. If I had my way, I would write the entire piece while on the run, as opposed to on the couch long after I’ve put away my running shoes. In front of my laptop, I can’t ever match the emotions, sensations, thoughts that I had on each and every day of running.

I felt speed, as I accelerated while weary of the lights threatening to turn red. Even typing the word “speed” doesn’t begin to describe it.

How does one feel speed?

My head says go fast and my legs respond, firing off those commands to move arm, muscle, bone, leg, feet – while my lungs suck in extra air that will be parcelled out to areas that need it most. In the span of a few seconds, speed is not just movement that is done rapidly, but speed is expressed as motion executed by a series of strides, only to be spurred on by a series of decisions, one decision overrode them all. The decision to run. And I decided to run. I decided to run HDOR this year too.