Streaking … for a whole month!

The title of this essay is deliberately provocative, and although I hope that many of you who read this may be pleasantly surprised, it is just as likely that many of you may have immediately guessed what the ‘streaking’ in the title refers to. I will get to that, eventually – I promise – but first, some general thoughts … on running.

I took up running as a recreational activity around thirteen years ago, without giving it much thought. Primarily, running was a way to take advantage of the wonderfully open roads and spaces that I was lucky to live in, in our corner of Southern California. The only ‘achievement’ that I can claim in all these years of holding on to that habit is just that – that I still continue to run, reasonably regularly and still feel incredibly fortunate to live in a place where that is easy to do. I have run a few marathons (actually, 16 of them – if you know marathon runners, you will know that their essential vanity is in keeping count and flaunting that number often), and indulge myself with Facebook posts of an image of myself holding up a medal, and basking in the ‘likes’ and comments. When people ask me about the habit, I have a nice spiel – about how I discovered this incredible secret method for completing marathons. Once I have my listeners’ attention, I let them down gently with my mantra – ‘Put one step in front of the other, repeat until you reach the finish line, all the time thinking about the beer that you can drink at the end’.

Recreational runners are known for their vanity, ever ready to brag about their achievements, flaunting their cheap free t-shirts with the names of sundry marathons that they have participated in, and eager to talk about how much and how far they run each week. Simultaneously, it is a hobby that forces us to develop a great deal of humility too. My paltry and trivial achievements in running pale in comparison to the sights that I see, stories I hear from other runners and Facebook posts that appear on my timeline – from regular people like me, not professional athletes. One former coworker and friend, Mohan, continues to amaze and inspire me with his jaw dropping achievements, listing the 100+ marathons that he has run, in all 50 states and all seven continents in much less than the period that I took to compile my miserable number. Another friend, Bharathi, casually drops me an email each year about running a 50-mile or 100-mile ultramarathon that I can’t even imagine starting. Ultimately, even though this is a hobby for millions of people, it teaches us to look at our achievements in a very individual way, and allows us to be proud of what we do each day that we run, however fast and far we run.

That brings me to … STREAKING! As you would have probably guessed, it isn’t about exposing yourself to the elements in public places. It does have to do with the streak – doing something day after day. I read a story about this in the New York Times on the first day of the year, and decided that it was as good a time as any to make a resolution. Simply – streaking in this sense is about going out and running, every single day – day after day, no excuses. One month later – this is an interim (hopefully!) report on how that went, in the month of January 2022.

The quest for consistency that is the essential element of streaking is not something that comes very easily. First, you have to consider the motivation to start, and maintain such a streak. It would have been easier if this were a class that I had enrolled in, and paid a fee to be part of. The compulsion that may have come from an instructor who keeps me at the activity regularly, or even the need not to feel that some money has been wasted would have helped. Absent that, this was something that I had to bring myself to do, every day, day after day. Each day, I had to find a time, in the mornings, afternoons or evenings, lace up my running shoes, and head out for a run, no excuses.

I quickly realized that the number of possible excuses that were available were numerous. Here are just a few of them –

• Last night was the New Year’s eve party – let me just take it easy for a day
• I had one drink too many last night – need to nurse this hangover a bit
• I’ve had a busy day at work today with back-to-back calls – isn’t it too late now?
• Today was Saturday – and I raked the leaves and mowed the yard – isn’t that enough exercise?
• It’s such a cold, windy day outside – crazy to think of running in this weather
• It’s an unusually hot day today – let me just wait for it to cool down…
• It’s raining outside (yes – it does rain in LA, once in a while!)
• I played golf today – isn’t walking 18 holes with a heavy bag a good substitute for a run?
• It’s the NFL playoffs today – so many exciting games to watch – can I skip the day?

I could go on … and each of the above is something that actually occurred to me during this month – I didn’t make it up just now. Each dot on the picture above (courtesy of the Samsung Health app on my watch) represents another victory for consistency, and regularity, and the resolve to look beyond any one of these excuses.

After the first few days, I realized that there were some pitfalls in my self-imposed compulsiveness to run every day. Setting oneself a target like this necessitated a completely different kind of daily organization and planning – each daily chore, shopping trip or social engagement had to take into account the need to work the daily run around that activity. I also had to set a minimum target distance each day to make sure that I was running at least as much as I used to, when this wasn’t a daily activity. And of course, sharp-eyed readers would have noticed that 3-digit number representing the total distance run in the month!

The United States Running Streak Association lists 3742 runners with active running streaks of 365 days or more. Atop that list is a man who has streaked for 19,246 days (52.69 years), and counting! A 31-day streak is not sufficient to even qualify me for a basic membership in that site. But there is hope – it is now a day past my initial target of 31 days, and the streak continues…