Sue Duffy is a 32 year old from Ireland who’s been living in Toronto for 5 years now – she also happens to be a good friend of mine! Sue’s a video producer at a large ad agency and big lover of craft beer (and of course, Guinness). She set and smashed her goal to run 5k/day in November with a mix of outdoor and treadmill running. Although she didn’t fear the distance itself, the hardest part for her was squeezing in the time to do her runs before work. Here’s her story 🙂

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

I’ve always found November a difficult month to feel motivated, the dark mornings and shorter days can make it enticing to curl up and hibernate. Endorphin’s can be lower than usual and hitting snooze in the morning is extra tempting. I decided to challenge myself to run 5km every day consecutively for the month of November to make myself have more energy and hopefully feel more positive.

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

I’m a casual runner, I go to the gym a few times a week, when I do run it’s usually for short runs around the 3 – 5km distance. I’ve taken part in a couple of 10km races in my lifetime but I’ve never considered myself a consistent runner. I knew I could complete 5km challenge but I also knew it would be difficult for me to stay motivated to complete it.

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

I never felt that I couldn’t complete the challenge because I set out with the mantra of just getting out every day and completing the 5km every day in whatever way I could, I was comfortable with the fact that if I had to stop and walk for a few mins to get through it, I could. I found my biggest challenge was to organize my day to ensure that I had enough time to fit my run in every day. Apart from day to day organization I knew I would be tempted to give my run a miss on a day where it was lashing rain or cold out.

How did the challenge impact your life? 

I felt physically fitter after the month. I also realized the importance of planning your day to make sure you fit your goals in and to actually quantify the time it takes to complete individual tasks.

Are there any other areas of your life that improved after the challenge was complete?

The challenge was interesting, I enjoyed proving to myself that I could complete something if I put my mind to it. I also learned that I don’t need to challenge myself in that way to feel good about myself and raise endorphins. For me, balanced exercise as well as other creative endeavors works best.

I would recommend #RUN30 to anyone who is starting out running to push themselves into a cycle of getting out there and putting one foot in front of each other.

Ready to begin your own consecutive running challenge? Sign-up for #RUN30 here.