Lessons of A 2,153 Day Running Streak

Over the course of my running streak, I ran 2,153 consecutive days for a total of 11,260 miles (18,121 kms) or about 5.25 miles (8.45km) per day.

During that time, I learned a lot – both about running and about myself.

Now that my running streak is over though, I’ve taken the opportunity to look back on who I was before the streak started and see how I’ve changed over the course of the 2,153 days.

Back on Day 1 of the streak (November 24, 2017), I didn’t use Strava, I didn’t have a GPS watch or a chest heart rate monitor, I didn’t rotate my shoes and I didn’t track the distances that I ran. Basically, I didn’t overthink or overanalyze every piece of detail surrounding my running.

The year before I started running every day, I lost about 35 pounds, and when I started the streak, I felt like I needed consistent exercise to help keep the weight off.

So my only real goal was to run with some consistency. There were no goals for races, distances or times, but once I was able to maintain that consistency, I realized how much and how quickly my running was improving.

This led to me wanting to test my progress more and more with races and distances that I hadn’t done in several years, which I talked about in my last post and some other posts over the last couple of years.

But aside from all of the races and progress that I made with actual running, the streak also gave me some other things.

Routine

Research shows that it takes 66 days to form a new habit. Well, I think it’s safe to say that in this case a new habit was formed. And once that habit was formed, there was no turning back!

My running streak satisfied my need for routine and removed any doubt on if I would go running on any given day. What was once ‘should I go running today?’; was now ‘when will I go running?’ and ‘how far?’ The daily running routine became particularly important during Covid lockdown/quarantine – if I wasn’t able to do other things, at least I knew that I would be going for a run each day.

Security Blanket

Of course, no matter how routine some of the days became, there was always bound to be some tougher days. 

And when those tougher days came, I always had the running streak to fall back on. If I had a bad run, I always had a chance to improve on it the next day. If I had a bad race, at least I had run XX number of days in a row.

In many ways, my streak provided a constant sense of accomplishment because each day increased the total number of days. This really came in handy by giving me a little confidence boost during some of the more difficult periods throughout the streak.

Toughness

Over the course of my streak, I ran in every different kind of weather condition. Snow, rain, ice, wind, extreme heat. You name it and I probably ran in or through it. 

Running during the day or at night. Running when I was sick or tired or both. The commitment to the streak was such that no matter what was going on that day, I was going running.

Car accident and hospital – run. Long day at work – run. Snow- and ice-covered streets and sidewalks – run. Long run or race the day before – run. Covid – run.

Physical conditioning was one of the many benefits of running every day, but perhaps even greater was the mental conditioning.

Confidence

Even though I ran for periods of time before and ran several different races, I still never felt fully confident in my ability as a runner until I was well into my running streak.

I decided to run my first marathon in 10 years during the streak because I knew how much I had improved as a runner. In 2009, I thought that I was done with marathons, but the confidence boost that running every day provided led me to, not only start running marathons again, but lowering my previous best time by a total of 50 minutes to my current personal best. That confidence combined with the consistency helped me to PB in every distance from 5k to marathon.

Also, without the newfound confidence, I wouldn’t have started this blog (Lucky you!).

Now that the streak is over, I am taking all of these things with me – consistency/routine, toughness and confidence. But I am also taking the knowledge that running 2,153 consecutive days provided. Knowledge that I can use in my running as I continue to strive for my goals.

I never would have dreamed that the streak would last as long as it did or that I would have had so many incredible experiences during it.

For a few weeks after ending the streak, running felt difficult as I think my body was still recovering from the kidney stone. But I’m happy to say that I’m back in a routine now – usually running 5 days and taking 2 rest days a week. 

Yes, rest days still feel really weird, but I am committed to trusting the new process and hopefully reaping the benefits in the coming months and years.

If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading and thanks for supporting me during and after my running streak – no matter what day we first crossed paths!

As a good way to end this, I thought that it would be fun to finish with a list of my favorite running things over the course of my running streak. 

Let’s call them the Streakies*:

• Shoes – Brooks Hyperion Tempo. Good for any kind of run.
• Watch – Coros Pace. Easy to use. Great value. Great app also.
• Socks – Incyclence. Light and comfortable.
• Shorts and Singlets – Brooks. Perfect for running in the summer.
• All other tops (LS shirts, 1/4 zips, Jackets) – Rabbit. Nice and comfortable even when not running!
• On-the-run fuel – SIS gels (specifically Orange flavor). In a world of terrible tasting or textured gels, these are the only ones I’ve found any joy or success with.
• Hat – Fractel. Nice designs and colors. Lightweight and quick-drying.
• Weather – Cold. The colder the better.
• Distance – Half Marathon. Somewhat easy to train for and a very manageable racing distance.
• Event – Trailfest 2021 for the uniqueness of it compared to every other event that I’ve done.
• Memory – Without a doubt this is all of the people that I’ve met and run with during the last 6 years!

*Thanks to my friend Mark for the Streakies idea!

---

If you missed Part 1 and/or 2 of my Streak End blog posts or if you just want a reminder, they can be found here:

• Unexpectedly Expected (Part 1)
• When the Good Outweighs the Bad: Highs and Lows of Almost 6 Years of Running Every Day (Part 2)