I have always liked a good streak.

Some of them – likely getting a certain number of steps a day have been good for my health. Others, like the consecutive days having a Dairy Queen Blizzard streak – not so much.

So, as of my run today, I have had a running streak for the last 1000 days. Since January 17, 2021, I have run at least 5 kilometres outdoors each day.  I didn’t start it by planning to run every day.  I feel a bit like Forrest Gump, I just started running and I haven’t yet decided to stop.  

So, what have these last 1000 days taught me and what I have I noticed?

1.  It is not really a run streak. It is a discipline streak. It is about consistency, habit, and stubbornness.  When I started, it was about running.  I had run fairly regularly before the start – usually 2 or 3 times a week.   But it is not the running that is hard.  It is the getting up in the dark and going outside that is hard.  I always feel better when I come back, but even after 1000 days, while it is a habit, it is still a challenge.
2. People will always find ways to question what you are doing. I have not told many people I am doing this (I realize this post kind of ruins this).  I connect with a few people on Strava who see and encourage my daily run posts.  When people find out that I have been running every day there are a few common first comments – 1) “That can’t be good for you”  2) “You know that is not how you get faster” 3) I’m surprised you haven’t got injured yet.”  I do often think of the quote, “You will never be criticized by someone doing more than you.”  
3. You can’t outrun a bad diet.  This mantra is something I have often heard – and it is true.  I am about 2 pounds heavier today than when I started this running streak.  When my diet is poor I gain weight, when my diet is better, my weight stays in balance – and really, the running hasn’t really changed that.  I have always been conscious of weight – from when I was 246 pounds in university to when I was having trouble keeping above 165 pounds at different times in the last decade.  My running streak is fairly divorced from my weight journey – which is really tied to my eating.  
4. People online can give you motivation.  I have been skeptical of all those influencers online.  I have thought that change is strictly something that comes from within.  Well, this commitment to running has been fueled in part by my obsessions with David Goggins and Jesse Itzler.   I read Goggins first book, Can’t Hurt Me over the Christmas break in 2020.  He argues that we only tap into 40% of our capabilities.  Following Goggins introduced me to Itzler who wrote a book Living with a Seal on his being trained by Goggins.  I got to following them and adopting their approaches  – my intermittent fasting over the last year is a direct result of following Itzler on Instagram.  
5. Track metrics. – I know all metrics have their limits but I track resting heart rate, weight, body fat and step totals every day and I have targets for all of them. I know, we are supposed to be motivated intrinsically and I am impressed by those who say they have never stepped on a scale in their life – I am just not that person.  I need concrete goals to always be chasing.  
6. You can fight getting old.  I am not ready to embrace aging.  I am coming up on a significant birthday later this month and this run streak is part of an overall plan to hold onto my youth.  I want to be running with my kids when they are 40.  I follow Peter Diamandis – one of many out there looking at new technologies and the fight against aging.  This run streak is part of staying young.  During the last 1000 days, I have run faster 5 k, 10 k and half marathons than at anytime since my late 20’s.  
7. Covid helped me reset.  The Culture of Yes had really taken its toll on me in the years leading up to Covid – I was saying yes to everything.  My life was bloated and my priorities were everything, all at once.  Through Covid, I was committed to getting and staying healthy and this run streak came out of that.  I would have said I didn’t have time before Covid to carve out 30 – 90 minutes a day to run, but now it seems easy, as I reset what mattered to me and my priorities.
8. Setting and meeting goals is fun.  Even within this run plan, I have a series of other goals.  I commit myself to running at least one half marathon distanced run each month as an example.  I have also set a goal of doing my run in each province.  With work and pleasure, I have been able to get through seven provinces – only Saskatchewan, New Brunswick and Newfoundland left.  There is a sense of accomplishment even in micro goals that are part of a larger plan.  
9. Running does help your mental health.  The connection between well being and exercise is regularly promoted.  And running definitely raises my mental being.  I use my runs to relax, reflect and reset. 
10.  Outlasting brings fulfillment.  One of the favourite things about this blog is how long I have been doing it.  During that time, I think millions of blogs have started and been discarded.  I think about this and the run streak.  I will never be one of the greatest runners in the world, but not many people ever run 1000 days in a row and that brings a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment – not in the sense that I beat others, but I am doing something others just can’t / won’t do.

I realize this post is coming off a bit as a self-help seminar.  But as I have said before about this space, I like to use it to work through my thinking.

And yes, I am going for a run tomorrow.  The problem with streaks is that there is not a natural way for them to end.  I assume one day I will just wake up and decide that’s enough.

This is the second post  that I am tagging “A Long Read.”  These are more personal essays that I am trying to write every few months reflecting on parts of my life and generalizing some lessons that have come from them.  The first of these, The Most Important Game of My Life I published in March.