Mike McKee

I challenged myself to run at least one mile per day for four weeks in July.

Here, I’ll share:

Why I did it
How many miles I ran
What I liked about the challenge
What I didn’t like
My biggest takeaway from it

Why I did it

The short answer is this:

I haven’t been running consistently. And I wanted to start.

The long answer is this:

I went for a run on July 4th.

I felt patriotic, so I decided to run 7.4 miles.

But a few minutes into the run, I realized I couldn’t do this. 7.4 miles was way too far. The 90+ degree heat factored into this realization. The main reason, however, was that I hadn’t run this far in nearly two months.

Luckily, I can think on my feet and adapt.

Instead of running 7.4 miles, I chose to do 4.7 miles—keeping the patriotic spirit alive.

But a few minutes later, I once again realized that I couldn’t do this.

Why?

Again, because I hadn’t run this far in nearly two months.

I had no endurance. I tried fighting through the heat and my weak lungs, but ultimately, I could only run 3 miles.

That wasn’t enough to make me happy.

See, I used to be a runner in college. I would wake up in the morning between five and six to run 4+ miles. And I did that at least five times a week.

Over time, I ran less and less until I stopped completely.

Since graduating college, the following trend has followed every few months:

I’d run consistently for 1-2 months
I’d run less consistently for 1 month
I’d stop running completely for 3-5 months

Every time I ran consistently for at least one month, I felt incredible. Better than ever before. And I’d be in the best physical shape of my life.

After my 4th of July run, I wanted to feel incredible again.

That’s why I decided to run at least one mile every day for four weeks.

Running 7 days a week. For 4 weeks…

Keeping the patriotic spirit alive.

How many miles I ran

My challenge began on July 6th and ended on August 2nd.

That’s 28 days.

Here’s the breakdown of how many miles I ran each day:

Day 1 → 5.25 miles
Day 2 → 3.15 miles
Day 3 → 1 mile
Day 4 → 1.16 miles
Day 5 → 1.65 miles
Day 6 → 1 mile
Day 7 → 4.5 miles
Day 8 → 2 miles
Day 9 → 1 mile
Day 10 → 2 miles
Day 11 → 4.5 miles
Day 12 → 1 mile
Day 13 → 5.5 miles
Day 14 → 1 mile
Day 15 → 1 mile
Day 16 → 3.3 miles
Day 17 → 3.1 miles
Day 18 → 1 mile
Day 19 → 2 miles
Day 20 → 1 mile
Day 21 → 1 mile
Day 22 → 3.5 miles
Day 23 → 1 mile
Day 24 → 1 mile
Day 25 → 1 mile
Day 26 → 1 mile
Day 27 → 8.3 miles
Day 28 → 1 mile

That totals to 63.91 miles. Or 2.28 miles per day, on average.

I’m happy with that number.

Scratch that…

I’m proud of that number.

What I liked about the challenge

There are a few things I liked about this challenge.

One is the discipline I developed. Running daily is not easy. There were many days I wanted to say “screw it” and give up on the challenge. But I never did that. I stayed strong and completed what I told myself I’d do.

As of writing this post on August 19th, I admit that I haven’t run since the last day of my challenge.

But I’m staying active doing other physical activities, so I wouldn’t say I “lost” the discipline I created.

Second is the goal I set. I’ve done similar challenges to this in the past. Most never worked out because I lost focus or motivation and gave up.

This time was different because I set my goal better.

I would have said in the past, “I am going to run more and be healthier.”

Goal-setting like this is too vague.

“I am going to run at least one mile every day for four weeks.” is stronger. There’s a specific action to take and a time frame to complete it within. The time frame helped me focus a lot.

Knowing the challenge would eventually end (after 28 days) motivated me to finish because I knew I wouldn’t have to keep this habit up forever.

What I didn’t like

I didn’t like that I had to run every day.

Yeah, that’s the whole point of the challenge, but I didn’t like that fact.

Even though I haven’t run much recently, I’m still very active. At the time before the challenge, I went to the gym five to six times a week and played basketball once or twice a week.

I didn’t want to give up on the gym and basketball during the challenge.

So, some days, I had to run a mile before working out at the gym or playing a men’s league basketball game. This sometimes overworked and exhausted me.

That’s why I wish I didn’t have to run daily.

There’s no one to blame but myself, however, because I’m the one who created this silly challenge.

The nice thing about running daily is that I had flexibility to choose the number of miles I ran. On days I didn’t go to the gym or play basketball, I’d run a lot—three-plus miles. But on days I went to the gym or played basketball, I did the bare minimum of one mile.

My biggest takeaway from it

My biggest takeaway from this challenge has nothing to do with running or staying fit.

Instead, it relates to the idea of creating challenges often in life.

Challenges like this gamify life.

It turns something boring—like running—into an exciting adventure.

This running challenge reminded me that I can do this more in life to keep myself entertained and prevent redundancy.

I’ve done similar challenges in the past, such as:

Going sober for 66 days
Going vegan for two months
Writing on my data blog daily for 66 days
Writing on LinkedIn daily for 100 days
Going 30 days without social media

Until this running challenge, I hadn’t done one in over eight months.

These four weeks of consistent running reminded me how much fun life can be when you challenge yourself to do new things and go on new adventures.

It inspired me to challenge myself in August, too.

That’s why I created a challenge called Mission 31-31.

I have a list of 31 things to do during the 31 days of August. A few include:

Skydiving
Having a beach day
Pulling an all-nighter for fun

I’ll share more about this challenge when the time’s right.

But it’s important to point out that Mission 31-31 was largely inspired by my July running challenge.

Final thoughts

One idea has often crossed my mind since completing this running challenge.

The idea is this: would I do this running challenge again?

The short answer is “yes, but with a few changes.”