One Mile at A Time

By Kristi Burry

In 2022, I set a New Year’s resolution to run at least one mile a day for the entire year. After having my second baby in 2021, I was looking for a running goal that was challenging but wouldn’t take a ton of time away from my family. Plus, to be completely honest, my husband had completed a similar streak in 2020 and I figured if he could do it I easily could. 

I picked a mile per day streak not to focus on losing weight or getting faster, but to devote a small amount of time to myself every day where I could get away from the craziness of raising two small children and just zone out. I typically was running about 3 -4 days per week anyway, so adding in extra days didn’t feel to daunting. Doing the streak not only gave me the valuable alone time I was looking for, but also reignited my love of running, my determination to accomplish a goal, and challenged me to get out there even on days when I’d rather not (like when I caught a stomach bug from my kids).

Most miles I ran by myself, some I took my dog Ollie with me, and if we were lucky enough to have a babysitter I’d run with my husband. Maintaining the streak was not easy. We don’t have a treadmill at home so this meant I had to run through the elements and managed to do so most days except for the deep freeze around Christmas where I ran some strange laps in our basement. It also took some assistance from family to help me maintain. When my husband went to Napa for a week, my amazing sister-in-law (shout out to Brenna) babysat so that I could get my miles in. 

As much as I love running, I was glad when 2022 came to and end. I still run four times a week, but it now feels more relaxed since I’m not doing it with the pressure of keeping up a streak. It did reinforce for me the importance of making sure I find that 10 minutes a day to myself that I got the most zen out of during the streak. I wouldn’t recommend everyone take up a mile a day streak, but I would encourage you to think about doing a mini-streak of something you love. Hopefully it will help reignite your passion for an activity you love or help you learn a bit more about yourself.