Start Today: 100 Runs in 100 Days

Dev Paul is a 50-year-old triathlete who began something when he turned 40 that’s become a bit of a movement: 100 Runs in 100 Days, kicking off today, December 15.

He says: It’s great for Canadians because winter sucks.

A runner must only get out for 30 minutes, and it’s OK if you miss a day, but the goal is to keep up momentum. Tremblant, who’s run Boston and 31 Ironmans, says he got the idea because he wasn’t necessarily looking to get faster—to do that, a runner needs rest—but because he was looking to make his training more interesting.

He needed a new challenge, a new goal.

“It was partially for fitness, but I felt like I’d done everything I set out to do,” he says. “I wanted to find other things that were fun.”

In the first year, Dev and his buddy did it alone. The next year, there were 100 people and in the third year, there were 300 runners trying to get outside 100 days in a row. Participants motivate one another using the SlowTwitch.com forum, which is a booming discussion area for triathletes—and in 2015, there were 700 people attempting to complete the challenge. 700!

In a missive Dev wrote on SlowTwitch, he writes:

It’s not a training plan, it is a challenge. Use it to motivate you, but step away from it when you really need rest. The runs are logged over on the Slowtwitch.com training log, which you will find right here.

You sign up by clicking the “Join Challenge” link.

On December 15th the challenge starts and you should go read the details on the SlowTwich reader forum. To understand what counts and does not count.

This year, iRun is hoping onboard the bandwagon and we want to encourage as many people as possible to get outside, go running, start up your own run streak, and laugh at the winter in your running shoes. Sure, it’s not cold now. But it’s coming. And I for one can use a kick in the running pants, and am accepting Dev’s challenge.

Use the hashtag #100Runs after you complete a run, we’ll do the same and let’s see if we can’t get 100 Runs in 100 Days above 1,000 runners. Challenge your friends. Challenge your family. Challenge your dog. Let’s get cooking this winter and let’s start today. I just downloaded Air Supply from Spotify.

I’m going on a run right now.