2 minute read
The #31for31 challenge began exactly one month ago today. 31 athletes committed to run 3.1 miles every day or any day in the month of March in honor of World Water Day, and in effort to raise funds for a clean water project in Ethiopia. I am sharing with you some lessons learned after finishing the month long challenge!
The hardest part happens in your head. Really, thinking about it. The best runs I have ever gone on are free of thought and full of awareness. Thinking about things can be hard, sometimes doing them is not as hard as anticipated.
Sharing your goals can help you. There are studies about how important it is to share your goals, other findings about it mattering with whom you share your goals, and then even more research about the power of not sharing goals at all because it gives you a premature, motivation-diminishing praise. Everyone is different, and sharing the goal seemed to help me stay accountable.
You might think taking days off running would give renewed energy, but it made it easier to adjust having it as a daily practice. Running every day makes it easier to….run every day. Doing it every day rather than taking an off day or running every other day, made it easier to run.
They say it takes 21 days to create a habit (or 66 depending on who you ask!), and I found it to be true with the #31for31 challenge. How do I know it has become a habit? When the desire to run feels like an urge stronger than the desire not to, it has become the new norm.
Running outside in Maine during the month of March? Not ideal! Having a treadmill as a backup option helped on those days when outside running was especially cold, wet, or both.
Progress matters more than perfection. Setting goals is accepting the risk that you may fail at reaching the goal. However, setting a goal propels you further than you would with no goal at all. I say, sign me up for failure when the other option is a failure to try.
Running can serve a much greater purpose than….running in loops around your neighborhood. The month may be over but the impact lives on. As a result of the 31 athletes participating and oh-so-generous donors, more than $2,900 has been raised for a clean water project in Ethiopia.
Thank you to everyone who joined the #31for31 challenge. A shout-out 📢 goes to one very generous donor who matched every single dollar raised by our runners ($961!) and then one more individual who rose to the matching challenge with another large donation (of $620!). Big thanks also goes to Lock Laces for donating no-tie shoe laces for all our 31 runners. You are the hope, the light, and the change our world needs!
👟 Special thanks to Newton Running for saving the day! I also learned during this challenge that I desperately needed new running shoes especially after running across Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire in 2020. The Newton Running team made sure my feet were happy during the challenge with some new shoes to cover the miles! 👟
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