Today is a milestone for me. It was five years ago I strapped on running shoes and took to the streets. My brother-in-law and his wife were in town visiting; both were avid runners so I decided to “join them.” That meant participating in a five-minute warm-up walk, then off we ran. I lasted maybe two minutes before I waived them on as I peeled for a short-cut home desperately trying to catch my breath. I ran cross-country in high school and never remembered it being this hard!
Well I didn’t give up. I went out and bought an expensive pair of “running” running shoes and proper shorts and even a running hat. Now I was committed. At the time I had been “on the road” for about 12 years. My weight was up to 182 pounds which for my almost 5’ 7” frame was way too heavy. My plan was to work my self up to running 5 km (3 miles) every second day. The weight would have to come off, it did, and before long I was down to 152.
Over the five years I’ve run 5,571.07 kilometres, 3,461.7 miles for my U.S. friends. To put this in perspective, to go from Victoria B.C. to Halifax N.S. (across Canada) would be 4,482 km (2,785 miles).
My goal is to average 100 km or more every month of the year. That means some runs in the winter are at -35C (-31F) which is very cold, and some in the summer are 37C (99F) which involves drinking a lot of water along the way. Pictured above is my running buddy. I pick him up after my 5k run, we do and additional 2-4 km depending on how he’s feeling.
Today’s run was special and I wanted to toot my own horn so “beep beep!”
Clayton Shold
Runner
PS – Set your goals, measure them, evaluate against the original objective, and course correct as required.
Clayton, congratulations! I’m not sure if I am more impressed with the five years of success or the fact that you have kept track of the miles!
Thanks for the great example of setting, measuring and achieving your goals!