Seven Day Streak

Today’s run was my seventh-day-in-a-row run.  Seven days is the longest streak I’ve ever had, so if I make it through tomorrow, I will break my longest streak.  The deal is, I’ve joined Jessica Deline’s challenge, Streaking into the New Year.  It’s public group that you can join on Facebook, and so far, I believe 32 people have taken the challenge. 

It’s kind of a two-part challenge, first to make it to the New Year running consecutive days, then to keep on going to see how long you can “streak” until January 31st.  The only rule is that you run at least 1 mile every day. 

Yesterday, Christmas day, I ran 1.12 miles.  And it was the most difficult run of my entire streak.  I was so worn out, that I practically ran in circles trying to figure out where to run.  Finally, I mindlessly took off on the sidewalks in my rarely worn street running shoes.  When I arrived back at home and my husband said, “Well, where did you run?”  I thought for a second and said, “Uh, I don’t know.” 

He laughed. 

“I think I ran such and such street, yup, that’s what I did!  I basically ran a rectangle through the neighborhoods.”

The important part was that I ran my requirement to keep in the challenge.

Today, I woke at 5AM with plans of going to the gym and doing some speed work on the dreadmill.  My throat was sore.  The house was quiet and the Christmas tree lit.  I drank two cups of coffee and then fell asleep on the couch until 9:30.  I’m not sure I felt so rested, but my sore throat was gone.  Well, you know what that meant?  It meant TIME TO RUN.  “Yahoo,” as our oldest son says, “PARTY BUS!” 

Well, I didn’t feel that excited.  I actually felt a little anxious recalling yesterday’s short run and adding very little sleep and way more calories than I usually consume over the past two days.  I took off out the front door with the notion of running down the highway, crossing the pedestrian bridge to the state beach then running back home, for hopefully a mile.

I felt great by the time I ran up the steps to the bridge.  I thought to myself, “Okay, I’ll run a little longer and circle the campground.”

Crossing the Pedestrian Bridge:

Countless runners hit the pavement this morning.  Cyclists rode in large groups.  The campground was unexpectedly full for the day after Christmas.  After drinking from the water fountain in the campground I felt so much better, stronger, that I decided to lengthen the run even more and run through the state beach and then out to the jetty before turning home.

View from campground of San Juan Creek mixing with the salt water to dump out into the Pacific Ocean:

Running out to the jetty:

At the jetty, I saw a guy reel in something from the sea.  I wasn’t sure if it was a stingray or a halibut.  Halibuts have to be down right huge in order to keep.  I don’t know about stingrays.  Anyway, he threw it back in the waters before I could snap a picture.  As I tried to talk to him about it, he nervously looked away like he didn’t want company.  But one of the bystanders gladly chatted with me a few seconds about the catch.  He told me it was a stingray, and then I was off running again. 

After that, for the first time in my twenty plus years living here, I ran up onto the jetty.  I’ve walked around on the jetty before, but I’ve never run the jetty.  Jumping from boulder to boulder was such great fun I thought that I might run this jetty’s entire length.  I think people mingling about thought I was probably a bit crazy, as even I’ve never seen anyone run the jettys before (thought some must have, right?)

Well, about 3/4’s of the way, I thought I’d stop scaring the people and halted.  After posing for a picture, I ran off with the promise to return and run ALL of the jettys after most people returned to work after the holidays.

The jetty I ran:

I still wasn’t ready to end this run after the jetty.  I ran into the wharf with a smile on my face.  I noticed (I knew this before) that the road runners don’t often wave or smile at each other, at least that is my experience.  On the trail, you hardly see other runners, so we always acknowledge each other.  I guess on the road, there’s so many other runners, that you’d be waving the entire run if you were to acknowledge everyone.  And who wants to run waving, waving, waving?  In fairness, some runners did return my smile or head nod.  (I stopped the short wave early on since it was vastly unreciprocated.)

The wharf:

Finishing up the Marina (do you think I ought to wash the salt off my glasses?):

After the wharf, I still wasn’t ready to end this short run.  I continued on past crowded restaurants and coffee shops into the marina.  People walked their dogs large and small.  Smokers sat at benches with picturesque views as they toked their cigarettes.  Walkers strolled along hand-in-hand, often blocking my passage.

The weather was perfectly cool with the slightest breeze.  And I had the luxury of a drinking fountain probably every 50 yards if I needed it.  Though I didn’t feel I needed the fluids, I was sure to stop at about every fifth one to drink. 

I finally turned back to head up the big hill home, when yet again, I decided that I wasn’t finished yet.  It’s just so boring to run the sidewalk up a big hill.   Instead, I extended this run up into a grassy park with lots of stairways.   I didn’t photograph them all, nor did I count them.  But I’d say I ran at least 5 staircases, perhaps more.  I can happily say that after the mountain runs these flights of stairs were surprisingly easy.  And I was so glad. 

Finally, it was time to head home, as I told my family I would be gone an hour at the most, and probably much sooner.  Already a little after an hour had passed. 

I reached my front door, calm and collected, anxiety-free.  After grabbing a tall cup of water I headed out to the backyard for a nice long stretch session.

Miles run on the 7th day of my streak:  6.04 (9.72 km).