Motivation has never really been a problem with me. It seems there is always something that gets me up and out the door. But it is usually on my terms, in my time and in my way. When I first heard about the ERR Elementary School Challenge, I thought it would be a fun way to get my summer runs in and meet some new folks "around my way" since so much of my trail running is done at least an hour from here. Unfortunately, the first run came a short two weeks after I was released from the hospital after a
disastrous attempt at my second Highland Sky 40. But it was a "challenge run" ...duh. That was just part of it. After that first night, I was not so much as hooked on the run as
obsessed with the idea of committing to running at pre-determined times (
by somebody else) for a full 14 months.
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| and now...you understand |
That challenge ended on August 30th of this year, and it was a complete success. Through heat, snow, freezing rain, and more than a little drama, I ran from one elementary school to the next, winding my way through the beautiful county where I live. After the first few runs, a fear of missing out developed, which is a sneaky yet brilliant way of compelling the runners to reorganize their lives to make these runs happen.
And then, as often is the case when you come across one good thing, the challenges were everywhere. No matter where I looked, someone had another challenge MEANT JUST FOR ME! So June brought the AB challenge, a hard core 30 days of increasingly insane amounts of ab work. By day 30 I could open a jar of pickles with my stomach.
July was the Tour D'Couch Potato. 100 bike miles by the last week of the month to get a...(wait for it)... cute magnet. WHAT? But, you guessed it, I signed up and did it like a boss.
Luckily the ab challenge had ended in June because there was NO way I was riding 25 miles followed by 150 sit ups and 90 second planks. That would be ridiculous.
So, at the end of the day (which doesn't even fit here, but I love using that expression), all challenges were accepted, started and completed. And this is all the very cool swag I now own that validates my very compulsive desire to test my stuff (I believe Freud called this "compensation?" hmmmm)
Oh yeah, I accepted one additional challenge too, and while I half hoped I wouldn't get in, I did. So for yet another year, I get to write about preparing for another shot at Umstead.
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