My Challenge: The Great Virtual Race Across Tennessee 1000K

The Great Virtual Race Across Tennessee 1000K course

I ran ten miles today.

Although I'm happy with the tempo pace that I achieved therein, I will say that the ten-mile distance usually isn't a huge challenge for me. I run ten-milers several times a week, and I often do longer runs on weekends. I know, I know: when you're retired, any day can be a weekend day. Suffice it to say that I typically do a longer run once a week.

A much greater challenge is to run seventy miles in a week. That's an average of ten miles a day, but such intensity requires consistency and persistence. Such weeks take in some ten-milers, shorter runs on easy days, and the long one. In recent years, I've done a lot of sixty-mile weeks, sometimes hitting 3,000 for the year. Yet seventy-mile weeks have been relatively rare. It's even rarer for me to string together a couple of these in a row. Could I do so every week between May 1 and August 31? That would amount to 2,000 kilometers or 1,240 miles. I'm not sure whether I've ever run so far in such a time period. That's the challenge.

My weekly mileage over the past year

The Great Virtual Race Across Tennessee 1000K is something that I probably wouldn't have considered other times. I would be thinking more about my performance at specific races. But now with the pandemic going on, there are no other specific races; at least no non-virtual ones. And so I accepted the challenge.

The 1000K course is a virtual one that zig-zags across the state of Tennessee. Runners log their miles each day, and they can see how far across the state they've gotten. 1,000 kilometers is about 620 miles, and that averages out to a bit more than five miles a day for the time period. The extra challenge comes in for the over-achievers (like me) who want to double that. They will virtually turn around after the first 1000K and run back to the start.

It occurred to me that I could have run 2,000 kilometers on my own, without paying sixty bucks for the privilege (and the t-shirt and medal). But by registering, I am making myself accountable.

I am in, and I start tomorrow.