r2d2_runner
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Jul 1, 2016
A week ago I asked a question here about doing a “20 miles in 20 hours” challenge to finish off the year 2020. I really appreciated the advice I got and I wanted to give a quick report on how this challenge went.
My goal was to run 1 mile every hour between 4am and midnight, for a total of 20 miles and 20 hours. The “rules” I set for myself allowed me to run these miles at any point during the hour … which meant I could potentially do a mile at 4:45am and then another one at 5:05am and those would count for hour 1 and hour 2 respectively. But I couldn’t do 2 miles at 4:30am and then not do a mile during the 5am-6am hour. I also decided that I could run the miles on different routes if I wanted to and they didn’t all need to start/finish from my home.
So, I got up just after 4am on New Years Eve and it was around 40 degrees outside and was raining a little, but the rain only lasted for the first couple of miles. I think I started my first mile around 4:30am. It was my first time running with my new Noxgear light vest/straps and my first time running by myself at such an early and dark hour. It was a little intimidating at first but I soon got used to it. I did another mile soon after 5am and then tried to take a short nap. I think I got about 20 minutes of sleep before heading out again - it was a struggle to get up and run again after only just drifting off to sleep. That was the only nap I took during the challenge. The first 6 miles I did on the same route from my house. I remember feeling that these miles were a bit boring and the excitement of starting this challenge was wearing off, especially since most of my family were still asleep so I couldn’t share any of the excitement with them yet. I did miles 7-12 at off-site locations, each around a 10 minute drive from my house. Most were places that I had run regularly during the year so it was nice to revisit those routes on the last day of the year. I took my husband and kids with me for some of those miles and that made it extra fun. Miles 13-20 were all done from my house on the same route again, and were mostly all in the dark. The last 2-3 miles I was pretty over the whole idea but I keep going until I had finished the task I had set for myself! My legs were never really tired until the last couple of miles. It was a good feeling to complete the challenge and to know I’d finished the year doing something a bit crazy but also feeling strong because I had been able to do it.
My overall thoughts about the challenge were that it was a fun thing to do once, especially during a year in which there were hardly any races or events to participate in, but I’m not sure that I’d do it again, at least not on my own. I think it would have been a lot more fun if I’d done it with other people. Doing it on my own in the dark, the novelty wore off fast. I definitely tried to make it fun through-out the whole day though, and mostly succeeded! My favorite parts of the challenge were the miles when my husband and kids joined me and I got to run in some of the favorite locations. I also had fun taking photos after each mile and posting them on my social media and it was nice to have friends give me some virtual encouragement. At some point I realized that doing 1 mile each hour and then having a short rest, felt a lot like doing an interval workout that just lasted all day! And it was a very long day. Even though I was only running for around 11minutes each hour, it did feel like I was going all day, between getting myself ready to run, running, hydrating or eating before heading out to run again, driving to a new run location, etc. It filled up the entire 20 hours with not a lot of time for much else. And I was very sleepy by the end!
Anyway, thanks again for the advice - it helped make the challenge a success, and hopefully my recap might be useful for anyone else considering a similar kind of challenge.
My goal was to run 1 mile every hour between 4am and midnight, for a total of 20 miles and 20 hours. The “rules” I set for myself allowed me to run these miles at any point during the hour … which meant I could potentially do a mile at 4:45am and then another one at 5:05am and those would count for hour 1 and hour 2 respectively. But I couldn’t do 2 miles at 4:30am and then not do a mile during the 5am-6am hour. I also decided that I could run the miles on different routes if I wanted to and they didn’t all need to start/finish from my home.
So, I got up just after 4am on New Years Eve and it was around 40 degrees outside and was raining a little, but the rain only lasted for the first couple of miles. I think I started my first mile around 4:30am. It was my first time running with my new Noxgear light vest/straps and my first time running by myself at such an early and dark hour. It was a little intimidating at first but I soon got used to it. I did another mile soon after 5am and then tried to take a short nap. I think I got about 20 minutes of sleep before heading out again - it was a struggle to get up and run again after only just drifting off to sleep. That was the only nap I took during the challenge. The first 6 miles I did on the same route from my house. I remember feeling that these miles were a bit boring and the excitement of starting this challenge was wearing off, especially since most of my family were still asleep so I couldn’t share any of the excitement with them yet. I did miles 7-12 at off-site locations, each around a 10 minute drive from my house. Most were places that I had run regularly during the year so it was nice to revisit those routes on the last day of the year. I took my husband and kids with me for some of those miles and that made it extra fun. Miles 13-20 were all done from my house on the same route again, and were mostly all in the dark. The last 2-3 miles I was pretty over the whole idea but I keep going until I had finished the task I had set for myself! My legs were never really tired until the last couple of miles. It was a good feeling to complete the challenge and to know I’d finished the year doing something a bit crazy but also feeling strong because I had been able to do it.
My overall thoughts about the challenge were that it was a fun thing to do once, especially during a year in which there were hardly any races or events to participate in, but I’m not sure that I’d do it again, at least not on my own. I think it would have been a lot more fun if I’d done it with other people. Doing it on my own in the dark, the novelty wore off fast. I definitely tried to make it fun through-out the whole day though, and mostly succeeded! My favorite parts of the challenge were the miles when my husband and kids joined me and I got to run in some of the favorite locations. I also had fun taking photos after each mile and posting them on my social media and it was nice to have friends give me some virtual encouragement. At some point I realized that doing 1 mile each hour and then having a short rest, felt a lot like doing an interval workout that just lasted all day! And it was a very long day. Even though I was only running for around 11minutes each hour, it did feel like I was going all day, between getting myself ready to run, running, hydrating or eating before heading out to run again, driving to a new run location, etc. It filled up the entire 20 hours with not a lot of time for much else. And I was very sleepy by the end!
Anyway, thanks again for the advice - it helped make the challenge a success, and hopefully my recap might be useful for anyone else considering a similar kind of challenge.
DH has "agreed" to run the 10k race when SIL and I do the half in May. SIL is working on her husband (DH's brother) now to get him to do that race with him. I'm going to have to try really hard to not be over-excited and annoy him. 
