A Marathon in 24 hours?

I found a YouTube video by someone named Beau Miles documenting his marathon in 24 hours, running a mile every hour.  In the extra time every hour he tried to get things done.  The idea strongly resonated with me, and I do have a good list of projects, so I did not let the inspiration pass.  At 9:00 am the next morning I had a bowl of oatmeal and started to run, one loop every hour, for 24 hours.

In the end, I stopped short of my plan - but it was a memorable day anyhow.  It brought back a lot of memories of old long runs.  It reminded Mary she is married to a crazy guy. 

Here is how the day (April 22, 2020) unfolded.

9 am - My "one-mile loop" is out the front door around two long blocks.  The loop is 'tilted' (not flat) so it will be interesting to see how much vertical I get over the day. Weather at the start is sunny and cool.  Saw a fox on the road.  My first task was getting the edger out of the shed, getting it started and making a nice clean edge where my yard meets the front curb.  I edged around the big flower beds while I was at it.

10 am - Spread Preen on mulch beds to hopefully slow the weed return.  I could probably weed for a couple of hours! Had first coffee of the day.

11 am - Cleaned out overgrown ground cover between the stepping stones to downstairs patio

Noon - Mary made her wonderful mushroom soup for lunch.

1 pm - Trimmed branches from cherry tree.  I cleared everything off the patio and got ready to power wash the stepping stones and pavers.

2 pm - Power washed stepping stones and downstairs patio.  Observation: Just because you have 40 minutes to power wash doesn't mean you can get it done in 40 minutes ...

3pm - weeding patio

4pm - Washed both cars

5pm - Rest!

6pm - Dinner. Mary made a nice spaghetti dish.

7pm - Mary gave me a haircut.  She worries she is going to mess it up, and I sound like Rocky Balboa yelling at his corner man "Cut me!  Cut me!"

8pm - Practiced a new Ryuichi Sakamoto piece on the piano.

9pm - I have covered just over 15 miles according to my Garmin, so my "one mile loop" is a little longer than I thought.

10pm - Mary went to bed.  The team dynamic shifted ...

11pm -

Midnight - Deer and fox in the road on this loop.

1am - I was thinking back to a time sleeping in the basement of the house on the river in Moorhead, watching the flood dikes with my brother Steve.  We set the alarm to go check the sandbags every hour.  Eventually I stopped getting up and Steve did it by himself - I still feel guilty about that ...  But I got up this time and went out.

And then I stopped.  I felt "OK".  Really tired though.  My back was feeling tired and weak.  There was nobody around and I just couldn't find the motivation to keep doing the hourly loops until 8am.  So I just went to bed.

Thanks to Mary for taking some pictures, and all the encouragement once I got going!

The track from my Garmin:

1,673 ft of elevation gain - I should have picked a flatter loop ...