185 Days on the Run: A Journey into Self and Society
185 Days. 1048.74 Miles. 163 Hours and 11 minutes. 1 Marathon. All outside. No days off.
“You will never know how far you can go unless you start. You will never see the end unless you fully commit. But, most of all, you will never know what will come out of it until you’re in it.”
From Uncertainty to Achievement: The Trials and Triumphs of a Running Journey
Following several spates of no-run days from July to November, mainly due to my noncommittal to run daily yet and my failure to properly recover from running, I kicked off the run streak on Thanksgiving Day, November 26th, 2022, at a Turkey Trot with my family. I felt confident I could go the distance with the improved knowledge of how to effectively increase mileage while minimizing the need for recovery time and avoiding injury.
Throughout all this, I knew I had lingering injuries from my previous life in the army, but I truly believed I had brought them to a level where I could manage the chronic pain while continuing to run. Unfortunately, I was mistaken about one of them, the osteochondral lesion on the talus bone in my left ankle. Despite all the work I put into managing it over the years and through the run streak, it finally gave way 185 days into the streak, swelling up and completely halting my ability to run anymore. Fortunately, none of it was in vain.
When it came to pure running statistics, I accomplished several things: I ran outside for 185 days straight (through the entire New England winter) and nearly nine months straight with a few days lost in October and November (with multiple 50+ mile weeks throughout); I ran my first marathon, coming in under my goal time of 4 hours at 3:57:01; I kept the run streak alive following the marathon by running the following day (2.3 miles in fact), and continued to run for nearly three more weeks until the ankle issue resurfaced. But there was more to all this than just stats.
Running Towards Enlightenment: Reflections on Life, Leadership, and the Loss of Natural Freedom
What started as an escape from medical school essays in July 2022 turned into a full-fledged journey into the depths of the soul. With each subsequent run I embarked on, the more I learned about the mind and body, the more I understood the meaning of life, and the more clearly I saw the forces that drive our world.
Running as a Pathway to Self-Reflection and Growth
During each run, without music in my ear, the distractions of social media, or the noise of daily life in general, my mind was forced to evaluate the health of my physical and emotional self. I became very in tune with all the muscles and joints in my body, recognizing when I could push myself and when I needed to peel back the mileage and spend extra time on recovery. The more I ran, and the longer the run, the more I found myself working through mental dilemmas as well.
Before I started running every day, my days were so fast and furious that I never allowed myself time to think about my life or life in general. Daily reflection is hard to come by in our modern society, but I found a life hack to the dilemma through running. Running became my form of reflection. I examined my life – past, present, and future.
I worked through my past failures and flaws, gaining from them what lessons I could [and should have back when they first occurred], and ultimately finding some closure within myself. I lived in the present, observing how I chose to spend it and if it was the best version of myself. Finally, I would project myself into the future and envision how I thought it would look and how I wanted it to look.
After all this, I would consider if everything I’m doing gets me there. And if not, what needed to be improved, changed, or even eliminated. Then I took action to make the necessary changes. Over time, these runs became more than keeping me in physical shape; they became daily workshops on my life. I never allowed myself time to do such deep introspection before starting this run streak; with these runs, I was doing them every day.
Reclaiming Life’s Meaning: A Journey Toward Family, Freedom, and Awakening from Society’s Illusions
So, what was the meaning of life I discovered through all this? Family and freedom, forever. Nothing in MY life is more important. Everyone has a different meaning of their life and a different purpose for their life. I realized mine was relatively simple: (1) Be the leader I was always supposed to be; (2) set the example for my kids and family on what living a principled life looks like; (3) free my family from the grips of the modern, industrialized society.
Embodying Leadership: The Daily Commitment to Set an Example
“Just set the example every day.” That’s what I told myself when I decided to go all in on this run streak. It wasn’t just for me but for my family, friends, and anyone who needed to see it. That’s why I shared a video of myself out on each run. That’s why I got up each morning and went out for a run, no matter how cold or shitty it was outside. That’s why I wrote about it and constantly shared my experiences. I wanted to use this run streak as the impetus of being the best example of a leader I was always meant to be.
Reclaiming Family Freedom: Confronting the Industrialization of Our Lives and Its Impact
But the loss of family freedom was the most significant revelation that came to me through all my running: how industrialized our minds and lives have become over the past several decades. Society has moved so far away from nature that it’s starting to kill us, slowly but surely, through chronic diseases of the mind and body. We are losing touch with what makes us human, the interaction with nature and everything it provides and has provided us over our entire human existence.
Unstructured Childhood: A Plea for Wild, Free Growth
Everything has become so structured in our lives and our kids’ lives. We’ve been dictated this lock-step path to success; you have to do this so that you can do that. For kids specifically, everything seems to revolve around ensuring they get into the best schools to have the best opportunities for success.
As such, from a very early age, we begin looking at our child’s life as a series of inputs necessary for achieving success later in life, rather than just allowing our children to be wild and free to learn, grow, explore, and figure life out on their terms with the guidance and example of parents and a strong community of like-minded role models. Unfortunately, parents have been convinced of this modern construct of success and, thus, know no better themselves. Even worse, these strong communities are crumbling all around us from the pressures of cultural change.
Waking up from the Matrix: Confronting Outside Influences
I’ve concluded that the matrix isn’t something we create, it’s something we just become, and I fear for most of us, it’s already come. There are forces that attempt to control us in every aspect of our lives. Whether we’re awake or asleep, through every hour, minute, or second of the day, outside influences are altering our choices and how we live. And these influences and powers that be are all aligned with extracting as much profit out of us as possible without care for our health and personal freedom or well-being.
We all need to wake up. We all need to start our own journey of “running” every day.
The Aftermath: Reflections on the End of a Running Streak and the Journey Ahead
Although it is bittersweet that the run streak has ended, it has served its purpose. My eyes are wide open to what is truly happening in this world and what truly matters in life. What comes next will be even greater than what these 185 days brought forth. I am not afraid to share what I think is going on in our world, call out what I think is wrong, and celebrate what is excellent. We live in a time of much consternation, manipulation, and deception, much of it directed at the youth of our nation, but one of the greatest aspects of living in America is that we still have the freedom and power to make a change, if not in others’ lives, at least in ours. I believe these simple words say it all: family and freedom, forever.
Family and Freedom, Forever.
-Greg
