The Merrell Challenge: 30 Runs in 45 Days

// My new running trail: Jackie O Reservoir in Central Park. //

Mapmyrun.
I've been meeting a lot of people lately. New city, new friends. It's been grand. One common denominator amongst a lot of these new friends is their athletic ambition: TONS of people are training for a half marathon this fall. It's intimidating. And impressive. And just plain intimidating.

I am not a true runner. A true runner needs no music, no external motivation. They feel the (intangible to me) heartbeat of nature as they fling their long lean limbs through the air, resisting gravity and all temptation to STOP RUNNING. Maybe they don't even have that temptation. I'd like to wave a Twix in front of their noses and see if any pupils dilate. These people are impressive. These people are disciplined. Beautiful. Lean. And possibly have extra motivation genes. These people all look a lot like my hot athletic sister-in-law Lauren. She's one of this elite breed. Multiple triathlons under her belt. I have accepted that I am not one of her kind. I would need some genetic engineering to yearn for the pavement in this special kind of way.

However, I do sort of like running. Even though it hurts. And I get cramps. And even though my inside thoughts are only whines. But really, I do like running (well, we should call what I do jogging), because it makes my lungs feel fly and my legs wake up. When I run I feel grateful that I can.

Enter the Challenge.
I came across this challenge on my Mapmyrun app: Merrell's Feel Your Run Challenge: 30 Runs in 45 Days. I am not much of a quantifier, so I've never really sat down and counted the number of workouts I do in a month of two. But this kind of made me ponder. How hard would it really be to run 30 out of 45 days? So before I could talk myself out of it, I joined this challenge. Am I crazy? I wonder if there are any bonus points for doing more than 30 runs in 45 days... If you want to join me in this endeavor, sign up here!

If you haven't used Mapmyrun before, you should definitely check it out. It's a free app that calculates all your workout metrics: calories burned, distance, speed, elevation, etc. It's pretty spectacular. It's super easy to use and sort of makes you feel accomplished.

So far, I've completed 3/30 runs and I have until Oct. 17. I'll keep you posted on this! You can follow my Instagram trail pics here. Wish me luck!