Time for a Challenge

What Walking 156 Miles Taught Me About Mindset, Community, and Goals

I was resting in bed when I heard my phone beep. I read a message from a new friend from an online writing group.

“I saw that you said in your bio that you like to take walks. Have you heard of the Spring100 Challenge?”

I replied that I hadn’t and asked for more information. Six months later, I posted to my blog in January of 2023, “One of my friends invited me to participate in the Spring100 Walking Challenge. During the duration of spring, I'll attempt to walk 100 miles, and if I succeed, I'll win a Spring100 t-shirt. It's a big goal and perhaps unrealistic, but I'm going to try. I have the drive; I'm just hoping my health will allow me to make it come true. I walked 1-2 miles daily for much of November and December, but for the past two-and-half weeks, I've been too sick to exercise much beyond walking around the house. This week, I've had high fevers and a lot of nausea, pain, tension headaches, and weakness. I'm mostly in bed currently, but I'm starting to turn the corner.

I'm not giving up on my walking goal, and I'll be back on the treadmill as soon as I can. In fact, towards the end of last month, I burned up our treadmill from using it so much. I was walking at my usual pace of 3 mph when I suddenly decided to increase my speed to 6 mph, which meant running. As I felt breathless a minute later, I simultaneously began to smell smoke coming from the treadmill. I immediately stopped it, and thankfully, the drama stopped too. The laughter, however, over how my ambitious personality led to the demise of our treadmill has not. Even my doctor found it amusing.”

Two weeks after my blog post, I began the Dynamic Neural Retraining System (DNRS), a brain retraining program for people with chronic illnesses. My health began to improve dramatically, and so much so that I began to wean off of steroids. Even as I felt better from DNRS, there was withdrawal from weaning off the steroids, and when I heard in March that the official Spring100 Challenge was being postponed until the following year so that the organizer could regroup, I almost skipped out on the challenge. But some of my online writing friends were hosting an unofficial Spring100 Challenge and invited me to join their accountability group. I mentioned it to my mom, and we signed up together.

By day 92 of spring 2023, I had walked 156.57 miles. My mom had walked 180.05 miles. We walked most of those miles together and were each other’s biggest cheerleaders.

Walking 156.57 miles taught me a lot.

It taught me the importance of mindset and that big things were possible for me with God’s help.

“I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:13

It taught me the importance of community and positive influences. Without the support of my mom walking beside me and my online friends encouraging me, I doubt I would have completed the challenge.

“Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.” 1 Thessalonians 5:11

It taught me to keep my eyes on the end goal, especially when the challenge felt hard.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:1-2

The following year I made my goal even bigger. By the end of spring 2024, I’d logged over 200 miles, and I’m aiming for at least 200 miles this year.

My Substack readers are diverse, but wherever you are, let me simply encourage you to challenge yourself–whether that’s doing exercises in bed for 5 minutes, learning a new skill, or joining me in the Spring100 Challenge. Registration is open, and it is free to participate. I’d love for you to join me.