21 Days Challenge
On May the 5th, I ran the Copenhagen Marathon in 3 hours and change. A week later, I did a solo Ironman 70.3. A week after that, on the 21st of May, I decided to embark on a challenge to run 21.1km everyday for 21 days.
Why would anybody subject themselves to such torture you might ask?
My answer is: I don't consider it torture, and I like taking on challenges.
21 Days to form a habit
Perhaps you have heard of the claim, that we can form a habit if we do it every day for 21 days. In reality, this was more about how long it took for a patient of plastic surgery to get used to how their new face looks. Regardless, I thought it would be interesting to see how close to automatic and effortless running a Half Marathon would become, if I ran one every single day for 21 days.
Calling upon HiveRun
Although I am happy to set and complete challenges for myself, I thought it would be a great opportunity to call upon the existing running community we have on Hive to join me and keep them accountable by posting their progress and results each day.
My challenge was as follows:
Pick a distance, minimum 5k, all the way to 21k that you must complete every day for the 21 days, and if you are able to complete all 21 days, then I will give a prize of 21 x min_distance in HIVE. Results must be posted each day. For example, if you run 5k for 21 days, then you win 105 Hive. Much wow, so easy, lets go!
Shameless Liketu Moments plug
With Liketu moments, you can post even micro-er blogs/updates and have them as a comment instead of a main post. We index and show the posts by day so that you can make it a 'moment' of your day to look back to.
As you can see, this format was perfect for my challenge, and all the participants were asked to post their results on Liketu moments as well.
Finally, participants including myself were asked to track their runs using Strava, and post their strava results accordingly. Perhaps we can look at integrating strava2hive in the future for seamless activity posts on Liketu. Something to think about for the future.
Some Stats
Total distance for all runners: 1823.13 km
Total time for all runners: 8 days, 7 hours, 6 minutes, and 56 seconds
Average distance run across all runners: 6.68 km
Average pace across all runners: 6 minutes and 51 seconds per km
Average total time spent running across all runners: 15 hours, 18 minutes, and 59 seconds
We started off with 19 runners, and we finished with 13.
| Runner | Total Distance (km) | Min Distance (km) | Prize (Min Dist. x 21) (HIVE) |
|---|---|---|---|
| @artsyjose | 117.37 | 5 | 105 |
| @cjlugo | 105.95 | 5.01 | 105.21 |
| @danielvehe | 131.99 | 6.01 | 126.21 |
| @elmerlin | 443.36 | 21.1 | 443.1 |
| @enmy | 107.47 | 5 | 105 |
| @enovf | 116.35 | 5 | 105 |
| @erilej | 132.11 | 5.04 | 105.84 |
| @graciliano | 117.66 | 5 | 105 |
| @leomontagg | 106.14 | 5 | 105 |
| @mfigueroa | 108 | 5 | 105 |
| @siriromo | 106.42 | 5 | 105 |
| @soychalbed | 115.07 | 5.01 | 105.21 |
| @victoraraguayan1 | 115.24 | 5.03 | 105.63 |
As for my own "Prize", I managed to clock up an eligible 443.1 HIVE Kilometers which I have donated to @neilamarcano who sadly had to deal with bereavement mid challenge and dropped out.
This was my training log from Strava.
These were the shoes I used for the challenge. A different shoe each day. I'm a shoe connoisseur, but when you run nearly 600km a month, you kind of have to be!
Which one is your favourite?
Final thoughts
Firstly, I want to thank all of the participants for joining me on this challenge. I probably would have backed out if not for the accountability posting each day and interacting with all the other brave participants. Even if you didn't make it to the end, I applaud you for giving it a try and I hope you will try the next challenge and succeed!
Secondly, I think running is taking off in a big way. Perhaps it was one of the few sports people could do during lockdown, or maybe we're all inspired by people like Eliud Kipchoge and his 'No human is limited' mantra. In any case, I think we have an opportunity grow the running community here, and I certainly hope that my next challenge will be taken on by a whole lot more people. I'm looking to have some partners to try grow this initiative in a big way. I am ready to do crazy challenges and make some noise. Perhaps you would like to support in some way? Reach out and let me know.
Lastly, life is too short to constantly worry about putting in the grind to just make a little bit more money. I remember having a conversation with Dan at Hive fest about what ultimately leads people to not want to live, and that was that their bodies start failing them, and it isn't enjoyable anymore because doing basic things become difficult, even painful. If we can keep our bodies in good shape as long as we can, then we can live our best lives for much longer.
Congrats to all the runners! That is a formidable task 21km x 21 days!! What is worrying is that I have found someone who has more shoes more than my wife!
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Shoes are definitely my vice.. on the other hand I do make good use of them.
I am very proud of all of you!
It is also very kind of you to make this gesture of solidarity by donating the kilometers you ran.
My favorite shoes, the light blue ones
The light blue ones are liketu coloured so of course, one of my favs too. I actually ran my 4th fastest time in them!
love to know that! Next time I'll join you :)
😟 sems I missed this challenge?
Follow me on liketu moments, I only really post frequently there.
Congratulations to @danielvehe, @erilej, @enmy, @soychalbed, @cjlugo, @siriromo, @leomontagg, @enovf, @graciliano, @artsyjose and @victoraraguayan1 for managing to overcome the 21-day challenge; especially to you @elmerlin for surpassing yourself and above all for allowing with this initiative that many add kilometers to their lives.
I take these words "doing basic things become difficult, even painful. If we can keep our bodies in good shape as long as we can, then we can live our best lives for much longer"; I thought this since I started to feel limitations and that is why I started in dance therapy and last year I joined a gym where I run 20 minutes a day before starting with the exercise routine. I am not an elite athlete, far from it; I don't think I will become one at my age either, but the most important thing for me is to prolong my years of life with strength, endurance and coordination. I have improved my body and my health, thanks to the constancy and discipline I have in physical activity.
It's a nice gesture, your decision to favor my friend @neilamarcano. She is very dedicated and committed to running, unfortunately her routine was clouded by her family's bereavement event. In any case I also congratulate her.
Greetings and again congratulations. 🌺🌷🌹💐🌻🌷🌷🌹💐🌻🌷
Thanks
Gosh, I think you would be able to do well in this challenge too. I can empathize with you regarding not being an elite athlete, because at the end of the day the only person we're competing with is ourselves, and the person who benefits the most is also ourselves. I'm just here trying to show people I'm trying the best that I can and spreading positive vibes!
That's right, that's the most important thing. However, I have friends who motivate me like @neilamarcano, @yeceniacarolina who was a running athlete and my gym coach. I used to run for 5 minutes and I got tired and for that reason I left hiverun. Last year I participated in my first and only 5k race so far in the company of Neila. Thanks for doing a great job of motivating me. Best regards 🫂
And I will continue to motivate you in each of your adventures, the best thing we have is believing in yourself, thank you my beautiful friend, I love you very much 😘
Thank you my beauty for the mention and for your words, big hug
I might join next time 🏃🏻♀️
I have a feeling that if I throw a frisbee I can make you run 🤐
Hahaha I can run in many ways, one season I was competing in running, maybe it's time to go back 😏
Long time no see! Mr Elmer.😊
Running is a great exercise for the heart.
thanks, running is life. 😄
Ha sido todo un éxito poder participar y finalizarlo. Esperando con ansias el próximo reto.
Mis favoritos son los de color naranja.
You will do well in the next one, I know it. Let's not lose our habit, and if we can grow the community, then even better.
Thank you very much for giving us the opportunity to show you and ourselves, the sporting capabilities we have....
And I also love the shoes, in fact there are already other Saucony Guide on the way...
You definitely showed your consistency and tenacity to show up day in day out. I'm impressed.
I congratulate you because you met the challenge and for you, compared to everyone else, it was much more difficult due to the distance traveled each day.
And thank you for the incentive to encourage us every day to continue, even when our strength was low.
Lastly, I admire what you did for our friend Neila.
It was a beautiful gesture.
Thank you.
Now to keep running.
I am actually impressed so many people made it. Of course, I was cheering for everybody the whole way. I was reduced to run walking towards the end, it was difficult, but that's the point!
I think many of us are surprised to have achieved it.
And yes, the pace slowed down a bit.
And, at least in my case, the last week I had to manage myself well to complete the challenge.
In any case, I loved this initiative and that many of us have achieved it.
Thank you friend, it is a noble gesture from our friend @elmerlin, I am grateful for it.
Big hug 🤗
First of all I thank you for the opportunity, you have allowed me to test myself for 21 days in a row and I really enjoyed it.
Now I will keep on training to increase distances.
Regarding the next challenge, what do you have in mind? I'll be waiting for it, and like you, I hope more people will participate, so they can improve their health and live a better life, as you said.
I tell you that I started the challenge with the shoes I used to jog weekly, but they are worn out, then I changed to some that didn't look like running shoes but they helped me a lot, maybe they are running shoes haha.
And well, of the ones you used for the challenge, I think my favorite is this one 👇
I am curious as to whether I can infect people with the running bug, and the 21 days challenge is my first test, hopefully of many to come. They will all involve some element of consistency because I strong believe that is the foundation for doing anything - showing up and putting in the work, day in, day out. You have demonstrated that and even made some PRs in your 5k distance. Remember, increase your distance a little bit at a time to avoid the risk of injury.
The shoes you have selected here are the Alphafly version 1! A personal favourite and I actually have 6 pairs of them!
You are really very strong, that goal needed a lot of support, I am very grateful and pleased to be part of this challenge. How I once read that our body is a temple So we must give him due respect, let's continue running and being healthy to reach 100 years.
By the way, it's time to go shopping, we were missing a pair of shoes to complete the challenge without repeating 🤣🤣
I don't know how long i'm going to live, but I want to live the majority of my years active and with good mobility. In the words of Attia, if you want to kick ass at 100, you can't be average at 50.
Better you can not say
So this is what the forographs were all about! 😱 I saw them running and posting the pictures, but I thought it was just their daily sport. Wow! my complete admiration to all of you, you did great! 👏🏻👏🏻
You got me thinking about the 21 days, I've been having a bit of a hard time getting back into fitness lately, I think I'll keep the 21 days idea to see if it gets easier to get back into it.
Nice gesture to donate your earnings to the hiver, in this country they sure were very useful to her.
By the way, I like your shoes, especially the ones in pink with yellow.
Greetings @elmerlin 💕
Aha, it was quite a last minute activity, so I suppose, one day you suddenly started seeing a lot of running posts on moments.
I think a way to think about the 21 days is like proving that you can stick to something knowing that it will at some point pay off. Perhaps it takes longer than 21 days, and perhaps it is something mental and not physical. Proving that you can stick at it for a reasonable time frame gives you the confidence to attack other things in life the same way.
In the end, we all have to assess whether the juice is worth the squeeze. Gaining some cardiovascular fitness and health and fitting in our 10k steps a day certainly can't do much harm right?
Maybe you would be able to join us for the next challenge, whenever and whatever that may be!
You are so right, it is also an excellent cardio exercise and mentally it is super energizing, I usually do cardio on an orbitreck because I have it at home and when I get home from work at night I have it available, but I have been sick for a while and I had to stay away for a while too, now I feel better, I should definitely come back fast! really thanks for the motivation, I needed to read this today.
I should try to start from 1 km in everyday 😅
Couch to 5k programs are popular..
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I consider a hero anyone that can do an ironman, so a big thumbs up to you! Sport is life, and although I'm a pretty active human, been slacking on my running sessions... probably should use this example as motivation to wear my asics more consistently! Cheers! !BEER
Wearing s nice pair of shoes makes running more enjoyable, more enticing. Atleast for me 😅
I just need them to be confortable; asics has been my choice lsat few years, they're awesome!
View or trade
BEER.Hey @elmerlin, here is a little bit of
BEERfrom @pardinus for you. Enjoy it!Did you know that <a href='https://dcity.io/cityyou can use BEER at dCity game to buy cards to rule the world.
这个挑战赛非常有意义
可惜我若是参加的话，估计第一天就会败下阵来，哈哈哈
That's why you're only oflyhigh and not orunlow
哈哈哈
I didn't realise you were such a keen runner. I run a fair bit, but I tend to find I need recovery days plus work and other things mean I cannot run every day. I do think that challenges can get people motivated though.
I think @strava2hive is doing a great job. It may be possible to use the methods he has used on other projects. I would like to see parkrun become a bigger thing on Hive. It is huge in the UK and some other countries with many thousands of people running every week. If Hive can get a small percentage of those then it will be significant.
Run free!
I'm trying to figure out the best way to get parkrun people to come on hive. I frequently goto bushy park and I agree there is a big opportunity even if a small portion (of a very big number of people) came to hive.
I think I need to do something to make news headlines and get people noticing the movement we have here. Of course tidying up the flow to make seamless integration would help.
I've not run at Bushy Park yet, but maybe I ought to as that's where it all started.
I like that strave2hive makes it easy to create a post, but people still need to create a Hive account and link it to Strava. I know @new.things has a Hive shirt he wears. Maybe we need some special ones with some catchy slogan and a QR code to get people to sign up and try it. The on-boarding process has to be simple. Getting news coverage would help.
Everybody knows about the hardest geezer. Another guy I met called johnnydavies ran the entire London tube. Both got BBC coverage.
My liketu shirt has a qr code. Liketu also has native onboarding now with referrals aswell that will soon earn permanent beneficiary rewards (at our cost) from all downstream users.
Parsing .gpx or .fit files should not be hard. People who use strava likely do so because it is hassle free and comes with a host of very useful stats. It will be a gargantuan task to replicate but we can atleast do the basics kinda like what afit have done but not have a website that looks like it was made in 1990.
I don't see us replacing Strava any time soon as it is so huge, but integrating with it brings benefits.
That reminds me that I need to finish logging my run on Strava from this morning so that it appears on Hive :)
Not sure if I would survive the challenge of running, but walking that distance could be fun! Congratulations to all those who did the challenge!!!
I'm sure you can run a couple km. We have some bigger people who made it through OK!
Hehehee... I will try it the next time! Btw. where was the post about this challenge? I didn't notice it at all...
Regarding that, I'm a co-owner of a @liotes project here on HIVE and maybe we could support the next challenge with some LEN tokens for winners...
Also, on a personal level, I'm doing a weekly show (online meetup, hangout with Hivians type) in the Ecency Discord, and we could spread the word about it there... As I record the shows and publish them on 3Speak, it could help in bringing some Hivians to participate...
Just an idea... Thanks for everything that you are doing for HIVE... I'm not an Instagram type of person, but I do appreciate Liketu and I know that many people are using (and like) it!
Cheers!
Great!
I made the post on liketu moments which is largely out of the lens of hive in general but I'm trying to grow it's usage. Here it is :
https://m.liketu.com/moments/@elmerlin/re-liketu-moments-20240521t192239539z/full
The liotes project sounds good and I can definitely come hang on a weekly show sometime, particularly when the next challenge is announced. The more awareness, the more participation, the more overall noise we can make.
I stand firm that if it wasn't for running and exercise in general, I would have lost the plot years ago!
Let's connect soon.
Oh, so that's why I didn't see it... As moments are like regular comments on HIVE, and not posts... As I following you, that's why I was surprised that I didn't see the post...
Anyway, thanks for the heads-up... Please let me know when you launch the next challenge and we will try to promote it!
哇， 原来大佬组织了这么有意义的活动，能坚持下来真的是太棒了，非常同意你的观点：“If we can keep our bodies in good shape as long as we can, then we can live our best lives for much longer.” congratulations to the runners and come on !
I'm on a mission to get more people earning hive kilometres.
Wow, tremendous challenge, congratulations! I run three times a week, about 3 km I think, but the idea is to do it at least from Monday to Friday and go increasing distance, I used to do it before, little by little I want to go back to that hehe. I also need new shoes, I only have one pair, I like these 😃:
Greetings! 🙂
That's already a very respectable amount of running, kudos!
😊✌🏻
How are you dear friend @elmerlin good morning
Without a doubt, running is a beautiful exercise, I would not compare it to torture at all.
I loved that you submitted to the challenge of 21 kilometers for 21 days, that proves your commitment to the sport and your determination.
Congratulations to all those who joined the challenge, especially those who have completed the challenge
My favorite sneakers are the lilac Nikke
Have a beautiful day
Thanks friend, although there were financial incentives, I think all the runners were ultimately better off in health and physicality than financially.
Great idea to get people moving more!
Move to earn could work, but I need to figure out how to balance the incentives so that all parties get something they want out of it. For now, I think a world with more healthier people is a better world, and a world I like to be in, right healthsquared?
Research shows that healthier people are on average happier people! I want to be around happy people and I want to be around them for a long time (long healthy lives!). Perhaps next time the community could vote for participant's posts based on their improvement, commitment and interesting fitness content.
Hello @elmerlin
This is undoubtedly a great commitment to the sport, you have a lot of resistance, and you are very determined.
Congratulations to everyone who joined the challenge.
I like sneakers with blue trim
A few shoes have blue trim 😅
I'm just speechless and grateful for all this. Thank you so freaking much, it means a lot to me, not only because of the prize, but also for the motivation and inspiration. I mean... 117.37? sounds like a lot, and I'm so proud of myself, and proud of everyone who participated.
I must admit, I cried when I read the donation you did, it does mean a lot, that's so nice and speaks volumes about you.
Hope to keep on running and training, and sharing all my process here, with y'all, because it was an amazing experience.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.✨🍾❤️
There was once a time that doing what you did would have seemed impossible to me. I also can't believe that I can motivate and rally a community of people to take that challenge on. If we all used the same energy to motivate all the people around us, then maybe the "movement" would be amplified many times in scale and we can do something even more special.
It was a pleasure sharing the pavements with you virtually, perhaps we will do one together irl one day.
It was definitely a pleasure for me to share the pavements with you too, hopefully we will run together irl one day, maybe soon ! ✨
That’s a lot of distance you put in each month. My running days are long gone, but I try to walk at least 3 miles a day. I mostly do yoga now.
3 miles is about 5k, that's the same minimum distance of this challenge. Anyway, I would love to try motivate people to do what they think they no longer can. Perhaps you can try the next challenge?
Thank you for this. Incredible achievement. I would go crazy running 21K every day.
I improved a lot with this challenge. I accomplished something I always wanted, which was to get under 25 min, the 5K. I didn't realize how much I improved in speed and endurance, until almost the last day of the challenge.
A next challenge might be to break personal 5K speed records. For example, run every day and make it mandatory to beat your record one day a week.
You should have one of these on strava every week.
Nice gesture from Neila, thanks.
I love the whole shoe collection. I'm going to buy some because I need them already.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
I congratulate you on a new PR for the 5k. It is such a difficult distance because of the speed, intensity and endurance required. I hope we can do a challenge which will involve more social interaction as that is the energy we can summon for each other to complete the tasks. It also helps to boost the visibility of liketu/hive which ultimately help me to do more if there are positive feedback loops created (more users, more engagement, more attention towards hive > price stability/growth etc.)
Congratulations on your goal!
I heard of it by @pardinus today. I've missed your post initially,but as soon has I got home from my holiday walk (+- 16.5Km) I had to cheeked!
Since I have a small disability, it not easy for me to run (since I stumble a lot, and drag my right foot), but considering walking, or even cycling is "possible" for me, ATM.
I'll keep up with your personal challenge!
And congratulations for taking it!
Hey there! That's over a 10 mile walk you did there! I really want to make the next challenge something that can be inclusive to as many people as possible. More than anything, I'm elated to see people do the best that they can do, and persist through what they thought was previously impossible. Generating that kind of morale helps our whole community and I think it will help us navigate these uncertain times with courage and hope.
Do look out for my next challenge, I'm going to think long and hard about how to make it the best one yet!
Thank you for taking the time to create a challenge that is inclusive and that allows people to overcome limits that they thought were unattainable for themselves. I'll keep an eye out for your future posts
Sorry that I missed your challenge I would have been up for a run every day. I do parkrun regularly too in my home made singlet and have onboarded quite a few other runners from there. I could do with another running singlet and shirt as they are stating to wear out
!LOL
!PIZZA
lolztoken.com
They both measure wait.
Credit: reddit
@elmerlin, I sent you an $LOLZ on behalf of new.things
(3/10)
Wow look at you go! Which parkrun is local to you? I'm based in London so the ones I visit most are Bushy Park, Fulham Palace and Dulwich Park. I'm biased towards Liketu of course and so my challenges will always involve posting and interacting via Liketu, but I also believe it is an extremely low barrier to entry for newcomers to get into hive, and participation is just about as easy as it can get.
I would love to see you make some posts there, particularly of your park runs and of course welcome the people you bring to hive too. Perhaps we can meet for a run sometime if we're not too far!
I am down under in Australia, we are lucky to have lots of local parkruns near by. We are keen to get to the home of parkrun on holiday soon. I recon liketu will suit my son and his mates. I will have check it out and learn more about your front end and I will start off trying to post there once a week.
Fantastic! Since we have a gulf of a distance, we will have to share the pavements vicariously for now. I will look out for your posts on liketu in the mean time :)
$PIZZA slices delivered:
@new.things(4/15) tipped @elmerlin
I have yet to experience “moment”. However, I must say that I can now use LikeTu well from my mobile using HiveKeychain
Definitely give it a try. I spend a lot of time there because sometimes being super serious with main posts is mentally tiring.
I will definitely do it and you are absolutely right
Correr toda esa distancia día a día es mucha dedicación, grandioso ❤️
For me the whole challenge was a challenge, not only because I am not an expert in running; but in those 21 days I had a lot of stress, I almost gave up on day 15.
It was a challenge with me, I managed to complete the challenge and also improve the 5km time 😍😍.
I look forward to the next challenge, and I'm happy to see the HiveRun community active and willing in the challenge, the motivation and empathy in the community was felt 🥳🥳 estoyas happy for that nice gesture for Neila 😍.
We are with you now ready to take the next step to start the race🥳🥳🥳🥳.
Thanks for the award, thanks for everything 😉😉😉
Aren't you glad that you found the will power and made it past day 15? I too had some doubts and uncertainty around the end of week 2.
I hope the next challenge we'll be able to make some impact outside of Hive so that it serves as a bedrock for growing the community far and wide. I think you'll be instrumental in making that happen, so I'm looking forward to seeing what we can do.
I am happy to achieve the challenge every day.🥳🥳🥳🥳 getting through day 15 was the best and getting to day 21 total happiness 🥳🥳🥳🥳.
I proved to myself that even though we have problems we can focus and solve them 😇😇😇😇😇.
I think this challenge consolidated us as a team and of course I am ready to keep running and for the next challenge 🥳🥳🥳🥳
❤️👟
Congratulations to all the runners who joined the challenge and to you, @elmerlin, it's a great initiative. Always promoting inner strength and health.
You pulled out the whole battery of running sneakers! 😉
I really like this, thanks for the wonderful post
Definitely gonna check this option.
By the way, I knew you love to collect shoes and you had so many new pairs of sneakers as well. I am not a runner, but I will try to challenge myself to run everyday...
Hello, when I finish my studies, on vacation I will go to a gym, I also like sports
It's great jjj
Hi @elmerlin, LikeTu hasn't worked for 14 days using Hive Keychain with iPhone, do you know if there's a problem? It doesn't load photos when I try to post from my phone using Hjve Keychain