Exercise it’s not a race, it’s a marathon. It’s a life event. Not just a day, a week, a month, or a yearly event it’s a life long commitment. I started exercising when I was a teen, mainly to bulk up my 105lb frame and try to impress the girls, which didn’t work out so well back then. Damn genetics, lol. However, now that I look back, starting to exercise as a youth taught me an inherit lifestyle and a way to healthier living. Of course, I didn’t think like that when I was a teenager. It was all about the girls, and if you told me that I was creating a foundation to a life long healthier lifestyle, I just would have said “whatever”…
Throughout the years I always exercised in some way shape or form and of course, like for a lot of people, it was also on and off for me at times for various reasons. But most of the time it didn’t take much to get back to exercising again. You see, the hardest step in exercising is just starting. And once you do, the next hardest step is stopping. Training for me is just another daily routine. It becomes a way of life, becomes something you just do, it becomes part of you. And for me it also becomes a sanctuary. When I run, cycle or swim, it takes me to a place in my mind where I clear my thoughts and leave the real world and all my problems behind. I find peace, creativity or simply just check out mentally and meditate, like Happy Gilmores “my happy place”. Now if I miss a run or skip one or need to alter my schedule for family reasons, I get grumpy and thinking about it consumes me until I can figure out when or how I can make it up. I know I need help…Thankfully I have a wife who’s just about as fanatical as me…just about…lol.
So as I was running the other day and my mind was totally wandering, I started thinking of how I can make sure that I don’t stop or if I do that’s it’s not for long. And that’s when it hit me; I wonder if I can I do 1,000 event miles, which I will call organized events such as races, triathlons, cycling tours which would not including any training, by the time I turn 50? The reveal; ok I’m 43 and I’m going to be 44 this September, 40’s are the new 20’s right? So taking into account that my first full year of event cycling and running will be this Oct, I’m still less that a year into this more dedicated routine since my first organized event. This means I would have 7 years to complete the 1000 mile adventure.
The math; to complete 1000 miles I would roughly need to complete around 142.8 event miles per year, which doesn’t seem impossible and now seems very intriguing to me. So, if I total up the events that I have already ran and cycled since I turned 43 and the events that I have already signed up for to complete this year, before I turn 44 gets me to 166.3 miles completed and on pace. Hmm…this personal challenge is very possible now. I mean since I started training more, I’ve been running, taking part in longer events more often and mix in a few triathlons – I feel that this it totally a doable personal challenge. I guess I should ask my wife’s if it’s ok but I think she’d rather have me training than sitting in the pub everyday, Ok, once in awhile is ok still…Honey, do you believe?
The Purposeful Hiker 