Run Every Day (RED) January 2024 - Banish the winter blues!

Help combat the winter blues by running every day in January. If you’re anything like me, then going for a run is the last thing you want to do... even though you know releasing endorphins is good for your mental health... apparently...

Join me (virtually) in running every day in January - plus a bit of February if you've not quite managed to get started yet!  (Thanks to IanVonLux for setting up the original last year!)

The idea is (Shamelessly stolen from Marcothon!):

1. Run every day for a month from when you join us (so January and maybe a bit of February - plenty of us have perhaps had a cold over Christmas or just been slow at starting our New Year's Resolutions :) )
2. Pick your own distance...it's about what will be an achievable challenge for you, it might be a mile, it might be a marathon, or it might be Couch to 5K (great app for people starting out).
3. It's a personal challenge - if you think you’re cheating then you probably are.
4. Extra bonus points for running in nature.  Not that points mean prizes or anything :)
5. No cycling, rowing or climbing the stairs in your house.  It's not really a walking challenge as such either but if you do need to walk a bit during your run to get your breath back nobody is watching... You can run on a treadmill if that's your thing (or the weather is rubbish) though.
6. The pace isn’t important, this isn’t a race.
7. Parkruns very much encouraged (but not compulsory) - why not keep an eye on the ODL website and see if we're doing one as a group near you?

It's the taking part that counts here - although you should be sure of your own fitness/ability in taking on this challenge, don’t injure yourself if you’re not used to running, and don't be afraid to miss a day and make up for it later if you're genuinely a bit injured (rather than just not feeling like it :) ), it's the effort that counts!

We are mostly chatting and encouraging each other on the following groups - I've created new ones this year to "declutter" a bit so make sure you join these if you use the relevant platform.

Telegram: https://t.me/+ijGs_4KJnPJmNWVk (this seems to be where most stuff is going on!)

Strava: https://www.strava.com/clubs/1199525

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1857104348067200

Posting photos etc on any of these very much encouraged too!

After putting the event start on the 15th confused some people I've put it on the 1st this year, but you can join (or start) a bit later in January and finish in February if you wish, completely up to you, we will stick around and support you either way!  If you've found this event page after 1st and still want to join that's cool, just join the above groups and say hello, and don't worry about the event itself!

Images are provided under creative commons licence from https://pixabay.com/service/license/ and used according to their license agreement.