I Ran 167 Days In A Row And I Don’t Recommend It

/ Stuart Danker
A compilation of Stuart's IG Story archive

My IG Story archive is just videos of me running.

It’s not that I don’t want you to run. I don’t recommend it because you should find something that resonates with you. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start with a little introduction.

So I’m the type of person who’d adopt a new habit, just because. No warning, no prep, and boom—suddenly I’m on a meditating streak.

That’s how I quit my one-pack-a-day smoking habit. I just decided I wanted to stop smoking. That’s how I turned vegetarian for a couple of years.

And as of 12 June 2024, I’ve officially run five kilometres a day, 167 days in a row. Some days I walked (pulled my back). Some days I ran circles in my room (COVID quarantine). But ever since I told myself I’d cover a certain amount of distance every day, I found myself unable to stop.

Do I want to run a marathon someday? Nope. Am I looking to lose weight? Never. So why the hell am I doing this?

That’s the question I ask myself every day. And my answer is always to lace up my shoes and walk out the door.

I wish I could give you a better idea of why, how, or what. Alas, I can’t. But let’s compromise and check out the lessons I’ve learned instead.

1. Everybody needs their own way of navigating the world

Some activities are so standardised that they work anywhere in the world. Some personal examples are jiu-jitsu and swing dancing.

You could practise for a few months, head off to a different country, find a local club, and continue where you left off. You don’t even need to speak the local language to communicate. Instead, you can express yourself with your slick, sweet moves.

When seen from that perspective, everything is a language. Take away the words and we’ll still be able to talk through a mutual understanding.

Chess, arcade games, sketching—you name it. Reach a certain level of competence and you’ll be able to communicate solely through your vocation.

And now I’ve added running to my roster of self-expression.

So while I lack in other areas like, say, holding conversations at a party or dunking a ball into a net, I can influence people through this new language.

Through running, I can show what it’s like to be consistent, endure discomfort, and keep my own promises.

I believe everybody deserves an equivalent art of expression, and it’s only through running that I began to look at our pursuits this way.

2. Happiness is not what you think it is

I like how Hormozi put it: “If happiness is your goal, then you’re doomed to be unhappy.”

Because that implies you’re not currently happy. And that also implies that happiness is a product you can buy off the shelf.

For me, the truest form of happiness comes from not seeking it out. Also, for the weirdest reason, my happiest moments are found on the other side of pain.

I don’t see happiness as an end goal, but rather as part of a bigger package. It’s like ordering a Happy Meal.

If discomfort is the fries, and happiness is everything else, then to avoid running would be to not have a Happy Meal at all, just because I dislike the fries. Plus, braving the things I don’t like earns me the occasional toy or two too.

3. It’s all a numbers game

If you asked me which session helped improve my time, I’d tell you to ask me about my deepest, darkest secrets. Because that’s easier to answer.

Was it the day I pushed for speed? Or when I ran double the distance? What about my slow days? Zone Two training is a thing, after all. Alas, I have no idea.

Just as in life, you’ll never really know which one action brought you to where you are today. Would you have grown taller if you played basketball as a kid? Would you have become a scientist had you paid more attention in physics class? Who knows?

All I know is that life is a game of averages. Or to use a different analogy, like the lint in your dryer.

The colour of the lint is the average sum of the clothes you put in. Can you pick a specific colour like you do with a hex code? No. But you could affect the general shade. More black clothes equal darker lint, for instance.

So on a micro level, running five kilometres won’t do much for me today. But on a grander scale, that action is pushing my lint towards a shade that I want.

4. Being consistent is the hard part

Pick one task. Any task. Make sure it benefits your life somehow. Maybe you’ll pick writing two hundred words. Or going for a walk around the block. Or drawing pentagrams with goat blood. Whatever.

Doing it once would probably feel easy. A week would take some effort. A month and it’ll start being tiresome. But a year? Two? That’s when you’re bound to tell yourself “Perhaps we should just take a break today” at least once.

Every time I mention my five-kilometre quest, people are quick to note how short of a distance it is. And I agree. Five kilometres is a starter distance, especially for me since I don’t take to running so easily.

But it’s the committing that’s the hard part. I’ve had life throw me all sorts of temptations to get me to stop—COVID, a pulled back, fourteen-hour shifts, vertigo, and rainstorms, to name a few. And this is excluding the general reluctance to work out.

Fortunately, I haven’t broken my promise to self yet. One day I’ll reach my limits, especially if those limits involve open heart surgery or a gruesome accident.

But until then, I’ll keep lacing up my shoes.

5. Your feelings don’t dictate your actions

If there’s one lesson I’ve learned through this journey—and if there’s one takeaway you leave with—it’s that the way I feel does not dictate how my day goes.

Most days, the last thing I feel like doing is running. Some days I don’t even feel like getting up. I’d function on only four hours of sleep, wade through a muck of deadlines, and still have a day’s worth of meetings to sit through.

But no matter how I felt, I still completed my five kilometres. To me, that might as well be a superpower.

I don’t need to feel motivated to do something. Especially if it’s something that benefits my life. I can set a goal for myself and know I’ll take the steps I need to get there. And the more I do it, the better I become at doing it.

So yes, while running may help with cardio or losing weight, it goes beyond the superficial. For me, it’s my way of learning more about myself, and I’ve only just begun.

Stay up to date with my running shenanigans on my IG Stories.

22 thoughts on “I Ran 167 Days In A Row And I Don’t Recommend It”

  1. “Or drawing pentagrams with goat blood.”

    Just found a new hobby! Thanks!

    Seriously, though. Great post! Way to go on keeping your goals. A couple of years ago I realized that I had exercised 5 days a week for several weeks, and then I decided to just keep it going, so I did it for a whole year! It felt pretty good!

    “I don’t need to feel motivated to do something.” The answer to how do I get stuff done if I’m not motivated… I love it!

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  2. Wow. That is totally a super power. Well done, Stuart. Seriously. Go you. I remember my mom telling me that if you do something for 40 days in a row, it becomes a habit. That’s only gotten me to floss every day. Run every day? Erm… (Plus, being a female, I would need a companion for safety. People be nuts.)

    Diggin’ the Jiu-Jitsu ref, my friend. ;) And you know what else is universal? Ehhh? Ehhhhh?

    That’s right!

    Goat sacrifice!!! ;)

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  3. I’m very impressed by your discipline and consistency with this! It seems like you will act on your words and it is very admirable, as it is something I struggle with a lot. The point about not needing to feel motivated to do something really got me thinking because many times I’ve not done something because I didn’t feel motivated. But you are right, I can still do it even if I don’t want to!

    What I struggle with the most is finding the time to do something so consistently, especially every day, but some may argue that I just need to take that time… Anyway, this kinda motivated me, not necessarily for running, but for achieving my goals in general! Thanks!

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  7. I’m 65 and have yet to ever feel the joy of running. It sucks every damn time. When I was younger, I played a lot of tennis and racquetball. After I retired, I played pickleball for a time. The bottom line is I liked competition, so playing in a pick-up basketball game never seemed like running, even though I was doing a lot of it during a typical game. Nowadays, I’m more into going to the gym or swimming. I can’t say I’m passionate about either, but I sleep better when I do. Though I’ve been steady for several years, I now go four days a week instead of six. I just need more recovery time.

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    • That’s a super age to still work out as regularly as you do, Pete! I’m guessing 80% of the general population can’t even maintain half of your output. And yes, it’s so weird how there’s no joy to running at all. But the rest of the day feels much better in once I do, so I guess the tradeoff is worth it. Love your thoughts!

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    • Consistent is surprisingly hard though. I am realising that it’s the act of being consistent that’s the challenge. Put a gun to somebody’s head and they can do a hard task once, no problem. Ask them to do 10% over a lifetime and that’s where things get tricky.

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      • That’s true Stuart, consistency is hard but I break it into the small things done every day and it works like magic. Some things look hard, feel difficult but wind up being easy and simple – other things look easy and wind up being so terribly difficult. Like capitulation, which is of course different to surrender.

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  9. I just finished watching an interview with Arther Brooks who says the same thing…happiness is a journey not an end…then someone told me that being content is being happy…maybe it’s different for everyone….me, the end of a good day is being happy….

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    • I love it when I live a good day. Even better if I maintain a streak of good days. Of course, it’s much easier said than done, but nothing comes close to feeling proud of how you’ve lived your day!

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    • I like “content” better than “happy.” Happy, to me, implies never going through periods of sadness, anxiety, frustration, anger — all of which are normal human emotions. Content implies that you are satisfied with how your life is going, with its trajectory — doesn’t mean you’re complacent or finished evolving but that you basically like your life. Which is a wonderful way to feel.

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      • As long as we look at life as all-encompassing, it’s much easier to deal with whatever comes our way. I’ve found that if we try to filter the bad things and only want to experience the good, that’s when we start seeing problems. Love your take on it!

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  11. You always make me laugh. ‘Goats blood’ 😂 I read a book a few years ago by Susan David called ‘Emotional Agility’ she talks about making small tweaks that make a big difference and that feelings are not facts, they’re data. She says a lot of other helpful stuff too. I don’t run every day, due to age and arthritis, I do write every day. Morning pages, as recommended by Julia Cameron in The Artist’s Way, is a discipline I started in 2018 and I rarely miss. It’s been revelatory. I may not lace up my shoes every day but when I pick up my pen, rain or shine, I know the perseverance is doing me good.

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    • We each need to find our non-negotiable. To me, writing is harder to maintain every day, and I’m in the same camp as you. But even something as stupidly simple as ‘eat one apple every day’ can be surprisingly hard to stick to in the long term. At least that’s what I’m learning. Love your insights!

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