Cornel Muresan is a 38 year old mechanical engineer from the city of Cluj-Napoca, in the heart of Transylvania, Romania. He recently completed a 5k/day challenge for 30 consecutive days after overcoming plantar fasciitis (a runner’s worst nightmare). I loved reading Cornel’s story and excited to share it with you 🙂

What made you decide to start your consecutive running challenge, how many kilometres did you choose to run, and why?

I thought about running this kind of challenge when I first saw Emily’s Instagram account sometime during 2017. So I was already thinking about that since last year, even got a name for it (“5K each day”). I just wanted to see if I can do it. In the words of Forrest Gump, “I just felt like running”

I was also inspired by my wife, because she did a 30 days of yoga program from a YouTube channel, where you had to attend a yoga class for 30 consecutive days and I loved the fact that she was determined and able to finish it.

Unfortunately I did not get to start my own challenge, I hurt my left foot pretty badly in October 2017 so I stopped running for about 4 months. It was plantar fasciitis, and I started running again during February 2018, but only did it once a week, sometime 3k, sometime 5k.

Then I saw your #RUN30 challenge, and I said to myself “This is it!”, I chose the distance I was most confident with (the 5K), printed the calendar, put it on the fridge…and got going!

How much running did you do before deciding to do the challenge?

I only started running in July 2017, because of a B2Run 7k competition which gathers annually people from a lot of companies in this running event for promoting a healthy lifestyle.

Some of my friends and colleagues participated is some editions and I wanted to join them, so I started a coaching session on the Nike Run Club app to get me to that race day. I started sometime in July 2017, race day was 24th of September. I remember this because it’s my first finisher medal. I’d say I ran a total of about 140k before this challenge. And then, 155k during the #RUN30.

Did you have any self doubts? If so, what were they?

Of course I had doubts, because 30 consecutive days of running seamed a bit intimidating. Also, my longest run ever was 7k so I was thinking a lot about “Will I be able to do this?” I also did not know how my left foot will take it, because I knew it’s about endurance, so I never skipped over warm-up and cool down and recovery sessions. But as I kept going longer in the challenge, these doubts started to fade away and I started enjoying the runs more and more.

How did the challenge impact your life? (good or bad)

Well, it made me pay more attention to the way I arranged the program of the day, so I could fit in this run too. Getting to the park or the track, plus warming up, running and cooling down took about 1 hour so I had to figure out a way to squeeze this in also. So I changed my alarm to 05:30, and it was a good choice because it got me a good start of the day, and also protected me from running in the high temperatures in the afternoon.

Also, I must mention the fact that I met a lot of extraordinary people on the track: old people running, a gentleman who had a stroke and only partially recovered but still did not give up running, a visually impaired lady that was running with somebody by her side holding her hand. Seeing this, you get a lot of motivation not only for running, but also at work or all aspects of your personal life.

Are there any other areas of your life that improved after the challenge was complete? (ie. career, other goals, etc.)

I think that you are a better version of yourself when you finish this. It’s not only the physical part, when you notice you can run longer distances at a faster pace, much easier. It’s also about the confidence in yourself that you get after finishing the challenge, which is always with you from there on. So I think all areas of your life improve after a challenge like this.

I learned I can be really determined to reach my goal. I was able to run on really windy days, a lot of rainy days or while I was away on a business trip. Things that, before the challenge, I was not really sure I would actually do. You know, the easiest way is to find an excuse not to put on your running shoes and get out there. It’s a bit harder to show up for yourself, but it’s always rewarding!

I already recommended this #RUN30 challenge to some of my friends and I will most definitely do it again, aiming for 10k each day. I hope everything will be ok and that I’ll be able to finish that too.

Ready to begin your own consecutive running challenge? Sign-up for your RUN 30 | Consecutive Running Challenge here.