I’ve been utilizing the Nike Run Club app since I moved to Florida in April. It was an app that I installed many years ago to sync with my wrist band, the first generation of run tracking devices. I then switched to an Apple Watch and abandoned Nike until just recently. In packing for our cross-country move to Florida, an extra pair of Air Buds were discovered after being lost for a year. My wife had already bought new ones, so I decided to give these a try. The same movers packed the charging cord to my watch, so I got out of the habit of using it along with my prehistoric transistor radio, relying on Apple Music to keep me  entertained on my daily pavement jaunts through the neighborhood. Now, a friendly voice announces my split times as I listen to my favorite tunes. 

I recently added the greatest hits of both Santana and Earth, Wind, Fire to my playlist ,in anticipation of my 70th birthday concert next month in Tampa. At the end of each run, I check the stats hoping that I will someday return to youthful form. Instead, my legs are turning to mush during the final mile and my times continue to deteriorate. Today the first mile was 12’42” while the second was 13’23” and the third 14’07”.  This seems to be fairly typical anymore now that even a ten-minute mile is no longer possible on these elderly legs, when six and seven minute miles were once the standard.

In April, I ran 87.6 miles, May 94.5, June 85.2, and 25.1 miles so far in July. There may have been a day or two that I forgot to set the app or it malfunctioned. Regardless of the app, the calendar never fails and it shows my running streak to be 4,575 consecutive days. I’ve gone through various distance stages in this streak ranging from two-miles daily to the current 3.1 mile course. Every once in a rare while, I drop to the minimum mile when life gets in the way of running. Overall, I’ve averaged over 2.5 miles daily during this twelve-year stretch, accounting for just over 11,500 miles so far. I’m more than halfway through the fourth leg of the journey from Portland to Venice, FL (3,126 miles between the two cities). This doesn’t take into account all those years before when I ran consistently and even trained for marathons, but not every day. I invite you to join the Club.