50 Days of Running

 It is that time of year - again!

Last year, for the first time in 15 years, I completely bombed out of my annual birthday challenge. I started off well for the first three days with the Western Cape Orienteering Champs, which was fabulous. On the last day, near the end of the course, I took a slide on a wet log in the forest, strained the inner-thigh muscles of my left leg and ended up quite sore for days plus with a twitchy muscle behind my knee playing up as a result of this. I've subsequently learned how to prevent and fix this, but a year ago I did not have a solution.

This was a horrible setback that knocked me more than I expected. I also wasn't really in a good space overall and did not have the mental capacity to try to pick-up the challenge again or even to modify and continue with it. I half planned to pick up the challenge later in the year... I just could not get myself together. I decided to just be kind to myself and let go. 

The months pass, the seasons change and life moves on. In what feels like no time at all, we are here again.

I'm in a far better place mentally, emotionally and physically. I'm running better, faster and stronger than I have for 10 years and I'm looking forward to the discipline of this annual pre-birthday game.

For this year, I'm sticking with 4km a day. I usually average more, but 4km is doable on those days that go crazy and where I would normally pass up getting out for getting something else done. 

This challenge is not about logging distance; the challenge is to show up every day to do something for myself.

Other activities like crossfit, yoga, mountain biking, dog walking and the like do not contribute to the 4km tally.

As you would have picked up from the title of this post, I will be turning 50 this year.

I know! I know! Where have the years gone!

For the first time, my challenge starts outside of May, in April. Another sign of the passing years as the start date has progressively moved earlier by one day since I started this 16 years ago.

Hip-hip hooray! Time to lace up my shoes for this 50-day adventure.

(About the above image: I asked my friend Chatty (ChatGPT) to create an image for me for '50 Days of Running' with Outeniqua Mountains terrain and birthday decorations like bunting flags and confetti for a festive vibe. I had not published this post and I did not ask Chatty to insert the text 'Cheers to 50 days of showing up for you'. Gotta love AI.)