Breaking 18 #10: 0 Miles In 68 Days

Sometimes, life gently tosses you lemons. Sometimes, life flings rocks at you. For the second half of 2022, life hurled massive boulders at me.

On June 15, while at a conference in Orlando, I contracted COVID-19. I suffered through the worst fatigue of my life, a 102.4-degree fever, voice hoarseness, and other less-noteworthy symptoms. My health returned to normal about two weeks later—or so I thought.

Since July 10, I’ve been experiencing a range of Post-COVID-19 Conditions, aka Long COVID. My symptoms include headaches, sinus pain, shortness of breath, fatigue, voice hoarseness, congestion, and elevated heart rate. For the past three months or so, I’ve often wondered if my vision is becoming blurry.

Through October 23, I tried to run whenever I felt better. I didn’t push myself because my only goal was to feel normal for one week. I ran only .77 miles on October 23 because a headache roared to life after running one-third of a mile. It was the first time a headache cut my run short.

From October 24 to December 29, I ran 0 miles. The continuity of my symptoms, especially headaches, became too much. I thought not running for a month or two might help. It didn’t. I was experimenting with cycling and yoga, but nothing yielded noticeable improvements for more than a week.

On December 25, I started listening to Never Finished by David Goggins. His first book, Can’t Hurt Me, was one of two books—Atomic Habits was the other—that directly inspired me to run 931 consecutive days. Never Finished immediately positively influenced my mind, albeit not without a significant setback that led to an even stronger mindset and determination.

Stay tuned to learn what the major setback was, how and why I overcame it in earnest, and whether or not I’m continuing to overcome it.