Andrea Knight was looking for something to help motivate her to keep running. In her own words, Andrea explained why the 100km a month challenge has been a game changer for her.
Having never been a runner, last summer I completed the Couch to 5K app in the autumn, completed my first 5km race at the end of October and my very first parkrun in December. At this point I felt a bit lost and wanted something to help me embed running in my life.
Looking for a long-term challenge to keep me going for the next year I was intrigued by the monthly Virtual Runner challenges. At first, I wasn’t sure I could make 100km a month and let my mind get the better of me and I missed the January sign up deadline. By 31st January and having completely shocked myself, I had managed to do over 100km and was lucky enough to get one of the last places! Now, the challenge was on… to get the big medal!!! For this I knew I was going to have to complete 100km every single month. I was now committed for a year so there was no giving up. Game on!
During the year, there have been times when I’ve not wanted to go out and notch up some miles but doing this challenge has made sure that every month I get off that couch and get my 100km in one way or another. February was a particular hard for me, it’s the shortest month and with a week out for skiing (for which the kilometres don’t count), meant I had to plan 33km for each of the remaining three weeks. I would not have done this if I hadn’t been on this addictive task. After all, in December that overall medal is going to look odd with February missing! So, would I recommend it? Yes, absolutely it’s a great incentive and I will be doing it again next year. Thanks Virtual Runner for helping make running a lifelong habit for me!