Will Run For Cannolis: Treadmillathon, The Road to Patagonia 2017

One year ago today (February 12th 2016) was the 2nd time ever on a treadmill. The first time was yesterday. I much rather be running outside. I was sitting in the Best Fitness parking lot waiting for it to open, and saw a post from my friend Chad Moye, He had introduced me to Runwell in November and was about to be running his 1st marathon. I asked my wife if I could run virtually to support him. She said it was OK, but how are you going to do that. I said, " on a treadmill.".

Doors opened, I pick a treadmill, and started walking. I put on some Slayer or something , and the walking turned into running. I thought to myself how the f am I going to do this.

1st dibs on a treadmill.

Here's some of the thoughts that went through my mind in the 1st few miles. This sucks, I hate this never doing this again, this is boring. I started looking for aches and pains, more or less excuses to quit. I really had no reason to quit. I commited to do this. I had to do it. But how?

I got to 2 miles, and found some swedish fish in my gym bag. I ate a few. This made me feel happy, and my thought process became more positive. Something changed. I decided that I would reward myself with a few fish every 2 miles. Every 2 miles was like an aid station. I had to break this run down into 2 mile increments. Next thing I knew I was at mile 12. It's all in the head!

I did start to get pretty bored, I have to admit. I had seen the highlights from Sportscenter four times by now. I was scrolling through my phone and noticed the founder of Runwell Linda Quirk, Walter Bortman and Patrick Bowles were starting stage 1 of Sri Lanka stage race and they were running 23 miles on day 1. Perfect, I only have to run 23 miles on this stupid thing, I'll do that! I will virtually run stage 1 of Sri Lanka!

Well, I couldn't only run stage 1. It's ALL or nothing. I thought to myself, I can do this, I will do it ALL on the treadmill. I took a look at the other stages, and wasn't sure I could find the time, but committed to giving it a shot.

Setting myself up .

I ended up sucking it up, and before I knew, 7 days later....Complete! ALL on the treadmill.

This experience changed me as a person. You can do almost anything if you put your mind to it. Breaking it down to smaller increments helped. I definitely pushed through some mental barriers, but I believe it made me a stronger person in the end. I built up more mental endurance.

This Sri Lanka virtual run planted many seeds. One, being the 12 hour treadmillathon, and another was to run the 4 Deserts 2017 Roving Race, which the location was announced as Patagonia. This race is in November 2017. I decided that I was not going to register for that many races this upcoming year, only a few larger ones. Guess what, I registered for Patagonia.

http://www.4deserts.com/beyond/patagonia/

My 12 hour treadmillathon is part of the road to Patagonia. I am also running the Boston quad April 1st which is the Boston Marathon course 4 times. These are both fundraisers for Patagonia.

https://www.facebook.com/events/1904803219755299/?ti=cl

https://www.facebook.com/events/240355413056954/?ti=cl

I am running for Runwell helping people who are suffering from addiction get the help they need by getting them into treatment program and get them into running. Changing lives one footstep at a time.

Please consider making a donation to Runwell.

https://runwell.donorpages.com/4DesertsPatagonia/HenryWard3/