Two years ago, a bunch of mates, all who are far better runners than I am, decided on a challenge, to run 1000km in a year. For two of them, training for the Gold Coast marathon, it was a bit of doddle, the third scraped it in by December and I ran into a bit of a obstacle. To be fair, premmy twins aren't usually included in the list of running challenges but my little guys, born ten weeks earlier than scheduled certainly changed my plans and perspectives.
Once they were home and safe, I tried to pick it back up, but we then had three boys under three in the house! The Kms per week drifted out to impossible and I missed out on the 1000km club shirt. The following year was probably even more challenging and I got to the end of the year thinking that 2016 might be worth having another crack at the 1000. The end of the year, with its lovely warm beer drinking weather came around and I found the little devil on my shoulder was not even having to work very hard for me to avoid going for a run. I needed something to kickstart me. I needed a challenge.
The first one was was a self imposed one. Run every day in January and to just to commit myself, start on New Year's Eve. I went for tiny runs. I went for runs in 90% humidity pushing two boys in a pram because that's what I could fit in. We did #sleepinruns with the eldest on the bike, very slowly as he did tricks on the gutters or turned around or stopped to look at the ducks. As the runs started to pop up on Runkeeper, my mates started to chip in with the encouragement. I found out one was going to do the Gold Coast Half this year. Soon the banter started as well and some challenges between us were thrown out.
I love this stuff. I'm far from a good runner, but that just makes winning challenges from skinny little buggers over a minute a km faster than me even more sweet. And that 1000km is so, so so far away, I need some short term things to keep me interested. So here is our list. 3 points for a win, 2 for second and 1 if you complete the challenge.
Longest run
Fastest run over 5km
Most runs in the year
First name challenge (write your first name with Runkeeper)
Best improvement month to month
Most consecutive runs
Most kms in a month
Most kms in the year
First to 1000kms
Gold Coast Half award
Most elevation in a run
Most elevation in a month (may)
Now, being the turtle in this race, I've got to get out and knock off the low hanging fruit while I can, so I mapped out my name and did that in four days straight. And I think I'm good for most runs in the year and consecutive runs as well (41 at the moment). After that, I might have to start sending anonymous cartons of beer to their house.
