Goals: Each step adds up

Last Wednesday, I had no interest in going running. It was gray, cloudy and cold. All day. I just wasn’t feeling it.

I didn’t go in the morning, or early afternoon.

But I couldn’t NOT run Wednesday. Or Thursday either, for that matter. I was too close. So after I picked up my daughters from school, I changed, and got out there.

Feb. 7 was my 100th consecutive day running.

This all started back in October, right before Halloween. I decided that I wanted to exceed my previous running streak — 40 days — which I completed during the summer. If I ran every day between Halloween and New Year’s Day, that would be a little more than 60 days, quite a significant improvement.

So beginning on Oct. 31, I started running every day, at least a mile, but usually more than that (I’ve been averaging 2.4 miles a day).

I ran on my birthday. I ran the day after I did a half marathon. I ran on Christmas and New Year’s. I ran in the rain, the cold, the fog. I ran even when I was a little bit sick (just a cold, not the flu or anything — I’m not nuts).

At some point, a Facebook friend asked, “Why put an end date on it? Why stop on New Year’s Day? Why not keep going?”

So I did. And I am.

As I got closer to my 100th day, I didn’t want to stop before I got to that milestone. Sometimes it was only that milestone that kept me going.

Pick a goal and make small, incremental steps toward it. Just that action can give you the momentum to go all the way, to achieve things that maybe seemed unattainable.

When you reach a goal, set your sights on something higher. Keep striving. It’s amazing where our strength and determination can take us.

The past six months have been a dark time for me in some respects. But it’s also been a time where I’ve been able to test my limits, and to redefine who I am.

Maybe tomorrow, like Forrest Gump, I’ll decide I’m done running, that I’ve gone as far as I needed to go.

But probably not. Who knows how far I can go?