The Donut Challenge

Stu Pocknee

20 Jun 2023

health , running

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Repetitive activities are a real buzz kill.

Running the exact same route every day gets old. Fast.

Fortunately, with TRR there is plenty of variety. There are 7 separate scheduled runs each week. Each of the runs has a rotating roster of routes. Additionally, there are two interval training sessions, and a parkrun (not strictly TRR events but well attended by TRR members).

People attend the time slots that make the most sense for their schedule. I generally make it to three each week. Some days/times have reputations as being faster than others. Certain runs have staggered start times: slower runners head out 10 or 20 minutes earlier than the main group.

So, variety is a given. Which is awesome. But it got me thinking. Has anyone ever done every TRR run in a given week?

I asked Eman. The answer surprised me a bit.

I like challenges. I reckon a lot of people do. Apparently Eman is one of them, because the next thing you know he had taken the idea to the club board and lined up some fun sponsorship.

Jackie's next newsletter contained the following:

Yes, Jackie got my name wrong. That's ok. If Emmanuel can be "EMan" I reckon I can be "PockMan". 🤣

Having been around for the genesis of the idea, I was keen to be one of the first to try the challenge. It would be an excellent excuse to meet a few more club runners.

Nine runs in seven days doesn't sound too bad. Particularly not for some of the fit peeps at TRR.

But people have lives. And kids. And jobs. And other responsibilities.

I doubt it is easy for most people to free up all the relevant time slots in a week.

As it turned out, the week after the newsletter was also the first week of school holidays for my kids. The afternoon runs (there are four each week) are the hardest for me because sometimes I am required to stand in for my wife's Russian Chauffeur (Picov Andropov). With holidays, I was in the clear.

On Monday at lunch time, I posted to Strava:

I didn't get any firm "Yes" replies. I wasn't convinced I really wanted to do this. Regardless, to keep my options open, I'd do the Monday afternoon run.

Long story short, at the Monday run Dennis said he was doing it. That was enough to lock me in. Jenny was coy on Monday night, but confirmed her candidacy by showing up on Tuesday morning. So there were three of us who attempted the challenge. We all completed it.

I won't go into the gory details of each individual run. If you're on Strava you can probably find my post run notes, or read from the screenshots below.

Instead, I'll go with some off-the-cuff observations.

1. It was harder than I expected. Backing up day after day was tough.
2. Tuesday Intervals were new to me, and actually pretty good fun.
3. I had not done the Monday, or the Friday evening runs before. Neither were easy.
4. Thursday morning was the hardest.
5. Jenny drove in 30min each morning from home to do the 5:30am runs. Big kudos for that! 🙌
6. I probably doubled my circle of club running peeps. This was excellent.
7. I think everyone got behind the challenge and were genuinely excited to see it being attempted.
8. All three of us ended up with over 100km logged for the 7-day period. The individual runs only (??) amount to ~90k, but it was a good opportunity to do a few more and grab the extra milestone.

I'm in no hurry to do this again soon. See point 1 above. But it was an excellent micro-adventure, and well worth the trouble. I really hope some other club members take up the challenge. I think it might be as much fun watching others complete it, as actually doing it myself! 😀

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