If you know me or have followed my past blog posts, you know I love a challenge. They inspire me to push myself and stay in the game all while staying off the proverbial couch. However, it has to spark something in me so that I will stay on target and keep going. Going is tough because you could easily talk yourself out of it. I’ll go to the gym tomorrow could soon escalate and the next thing you know, a month has passed and your step count is sadly lagging behind everyone else in the challenge.
January 1, 2020 I joined A Great Canadian Running Challenge or in my case it was a walking challenge. The goal, 1000 kms before year’s end. I had a plan formulated in which I would be walking indoor during the winter months at our local recreation centre. Then everything shut down due to COVID-19. As people began to work from home or were totally laid off, there was a influx of folks trying to fill their days by hitting our walking trails. It was so hard to retain the recommended distance. Spacing front to back was fine, it was the narrowness of the paths due to the snow banks on both sides. You couldn’t really just step aside and carry on. What to do? My brain storm was to head over to the rec centre and just walk the perimeter of the huge parking lot! It worked like a charm. I had my trusty partner in crime aka Joe to keep my company. Once spring arrived and things thawed out, we headed to different trails in the area. The app All Trails was an superb resource. We seen some absolutely gorgeous views while exploring. After a while of daily walks on the same route, you crave the unexpected. As it was, I hit my 1000th kilometre late August!
My steps dropped after that, as I wasn’t motivated to push myself. Then a couple weeks ago I seen My Virtual Mission & The Conqueror Events. Hey, what’s this????
I checked out some of the different events they were running and when my eyes spotted the Cabot Trail challenge of 298 kms with a suggested finish goal of 12 weeks, I knew I had to sign up. We had toured the very same trail in 2018 and fell in love with the area and the people. The big carrot for me was the suggested finish date of Jan 3, 2021. I thought this would be a fitting challenge to wrap up the day before my birthday. And it will be one of the ‘big ones’. I’m not saying which one but it is a significant marker in a person’s life.
Autumn has been unpredictable here, snow and cold temperatures and then yesterday and today we hit +13°. Hard to believe but I will take it as I get as much fresh air and exercise before having to head back indoors. *** Should a second lock down happen, you will find me back in the parking lot, doing laps.
Be good, stay engaged in whatever fashion suits you.
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