r2d2_runner
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Jul 1, 2016
- Messages
- 54
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.