2.6 Challenge: Week 4 – COMPLETE!

I’m so happy! This week I completed my 2.6 challenge! I’m so proud of myself.

I started the 2.6 challenge on Sunday 26th April, to raise awareness and funds for the Scoliosis Campaign Fund. Like many charities, the Scoliosis Campaign Fund has been affected by the cancellation of fundraising events due to COVID19.

The 2.6 challenge was launched to save the UK’s charities, and the idea is that people can do any challenge associated with the numbers 2 and/or 6.

As part of this challenge, I decided to run 2.6 miles every day, for 26 consecutive days.

---

At the start, I didn’t realise how tough this would be. 2.6 miles doesn’t sound a lot, but running this every day was difficult. Not just physically, but mentally.

Physically, after I was about half way through, I started to struggle. My legs felt heavy, my calves felt tight. Towards the end my ankles, shins and lower back really started to hurt. I did debate missing a run towards the end but I didn’t want to give up – I was determined to complete the challenge.

On top of the pain, I also found it tough mentally. Running has always been an escapism for me, and I find it helps me to manage my anxiety and just generally makes me feel better. But whilst I was doing this challenge, I really started to resent it. I started dreading going out and just wanted to get the runs over with. I think partly, this was because of lockdown and the anxiety of running whilst trying to avoid people, as well as doing the same, local, uninspiring routes, which quickly became boring!

To get through it, I tried to vary my routes as much as I could. On the final week of my challenge, when I was really struggling, I ran to my parents house (which just so happens to be around 2.6 miles away) for a socially distant chat. This helped me immensely having something to look forward to at the end of the run. I wasn’t able to do this on earlier runs, but seeing as the lockdown rules were relaxed last week, this was now possible and it helped me a lot.

The last week of my challenge was also really hot weather and so for the last 2 runs I was running in temperatures of around 28 degrees celsius. This also made it tougher as I’m not really used to running in warm weather (being from the UK!) On the plus side, I got to try out my new running sunglasses! 🙂

I made sure that due to the weather, and my painful legs, that the last few runs were more recovery paced runs, where I slowed the pace right down. This helped my muscles to recover slightly, whilst also making sure I got the miles in.

Since doing this challenge, I really understand the value of rest days!

---

My 2.6 Challenge – some stats

I recorded all my runs on my Strava, so I was able to add up all my stats! Even though the challenge was to run 2.6 miles every day, some days I did do a few more miles than that. So overall, I ran over 82 miles across the 26 days, which took me a total of 13 hours and 21 minutes. I think that’s pretty impressive!

The best part about the challenge though, is that it helped me to raise over £300 for the Scoliosis Campaign Fund, as well as providing me with a focus and a bit of motivation during lockdown. It was tough, but I’m glad I did it and I’m proud I managed to raise money in difficult circumstances.

I’m leaving my sponsor page open, so if you would like to sponsor me, you can do so here. 🙂

Remember to follow me over on Instagram and Strava if you’d like to keep up with my adventures. 🙂

You can also check out my other posts on my 2.6 challenge here:

2.6 Challenge: Week One

2.6 Challenge: Week Two

2.6 Challenge: Week Three

Stay safe and keep going!

Louise X