Consecutive Running Streaks

I love this story! What is it about consecutive days running streaks? I have mine listed in my side bar (only 14 days) but there are a whole group of people of have 30+ YEARS of running everyday! That's mind boggling to me. I wish I could do that (but I never will).

One of the things about this story for me was the comments I found on the MSN site (attached). Even though the article was written for the WSJ I used the MSN version so you could read the comments yourselves if you really wanted to take the time doing that. Overall the comments were very positive, but early on a lot of people were commenting on how this was addictive behaviour and unhealthy. Some even went as far to call it a 'form' of OCD. I found those comments interesting. You always hear that habits are formed after 30-60 days of doing the activity (running in this case) when does someone start to consider the habit as overkill? Or even dangerous? When does this habit or running become a negative connotation? What happens if this habit isn't running? Maybe we're talking about watching TV. Shoot I watch TV everyday - and I'm guessing 99% of the population watches 30 mins of TV per day - why doesn't that get a negative connotation? You hear about studies regarding the AMOUNT of time someone watches TV but never a study of if you actually TURNED the TV on for the day. In fact I'm guessing I could put together a 30+ year streak of watching TV.......... And don't even get into my streak on teeth brushing. (Dude, am I OCD?)

Anyway, I tend to believe that the people who labeled this running streak as bad - or addicting behaviour don't understand the accomplishment (or they're jealous, or lazy). I truly believe the people who accomplish these feats are just like you and I, no one in their right mind wants to get up at 4:00am in order to get in a 5 miler, or in my case a 8:00pm 3 miler. The very fact that these 'streakers' are able to step out the door everyday for 30+ years makes them special. (And I don't mean 'special' special.) I would love to tell someone that I've run everyday for 30+ years without missing a day. God that would be great! Image how good that would feel, talk about self pride. Therefore my 'Streak' sidebar PB will be listed here, and maybe one day I'll be able to upgrade it from 14 consecutive days.......

Keep Steppin'

Bob