Our small rural neighborhood has a sort of community handyman who moves from place to place, helping us all keep our properties from disrepair. This fellow is 55 years old, did no sports in high school, and until about 2 years ago his lifelong hobby was anything you hiked your leg over that was powered by a two-stroke engine that went braaaaap! when you twisted the throttle.
He heard some of us talking about the 100/100 Run Challenge a year-and-some ago, and quietly, saying nothing to us, he chose to take part. Last year he finally tapped out at about 80 runs. This year, he’s at day-105 or so, which is to say, he completed all 100 consecutive days and he’s not stopping.
This is the compelling nature of this challenge. He isn’t “one of us" if I can put on my snooty hat for a moment. He does his runs in tennis shoes and street clothes. Jeans. (I’m trying to remedy that.)
This is the spirit of this Challenge, and this year 723 officially took part, versus 726 last year. There were 152 this year who completed 100 runs in 100 days, versus 144 last year. There were 227 this past year who completed at least 70 runs, versus 221 last year.
The high water mark for this Challenge was 2 years ago, where a record 761 took part, but only 130 completed 100 runs and 215 completed at least 70 runs. You guys are apparently getting the hang of it.
That Man from Another Planet Bluestacks867 ran 550 times last year, starting the Challenge going with a bang, completing 9 runs on Day-1. Bluestacks blew his wad and sat this year’s Challenge out. This year the most runs was achieved by triordie1994, who ran 250 times, but only Bluestacks has ever run more. Second was our own man-reborn, Herbert Krabel, with 222 runs, and at age-56 the primary biker (historically) has found new life as a run specialist (running a mid-17-min 5k during the Challenge on a treadmill, along with a sub-5-minute mile).
Our official 100/100 thread on our Reader Forum has 598 posts and counting. Last year our official thread topped out at 612 posts. It’s a pretty inspirational read. Here’s the 8th post from the end. “LONG time ST lurker. I've thought about the 100/100 for a while, but it never quite fit in with my fitness and/or training plan. This year things worked out as I was consistently running 3 mile short runs in the fall so I joined, and I just made it with my 100th run on day 100!"
Three posts later we read from another user, “It was my first year, and I dug it, marking 116 runs. It inspired my wife to run more than she ever has in the winter.”
There is one downside to the Challenge. Our local two-stroke enthusiast and handyman insists on quitting work at 3pm every day. He has to get his run in.
