Before I start with this challenge, I'd first like to say that I'm not going to suggest this for beginners or for people who are not fit. This is aimed at runners who are definitely past the beginning stages. However, there's still no reason why you couldn't train yourself so that you could do this challenge in the future, in which case you may find this helpful: How to Start Running. ;)
I thought about writing this a while back but didn't get round to it, but now I am. I actually got the idea for this challenge from when I was at high school, a good few years ago now. During my time at high school there was a challenge called the 100k challenge. Basically you had to run 100,000 metres and you would have your place on the 100k-victors 'wall of fame'. The challenge was spread out over the school year so that even if you weren't fit and/or didn't run a lot you could still take part and complete it by doing it in smaller chunks So for example, you could run 1,000 metres (2.5 times around our school running track) every school day for 20 weeks and you'd complete it. People who were attempting it often did it after school so that they had the time to do as much as they wanted and so they wasn't sweating through the school day.
I thought about writing this a while back but didn't get round to it, but now I am. I actually got the idea for this challenge from when I was at high school, a good few years ago now. During my time at high school there was a challenge called the 100k challenge. Basically you had to run 100,000 metres and you would have your place on the 100k-victors 'wall of fame'. The challenge was spread out over the school year so that even if you weren't fit and/or didn't run a lot you could still take part and complete it by doing it in smaller chunks So for example, you could run 1,000 metres (2.5 times around our school running track) every school day for 20 weeks and you'd complete it. People who were attempting it often did it after school so that they had the time to do as much as they wanted and so they wasn't sweating through the school day.
I think there were two main things that the school wanted students to learn from this challenge. Firstly that it's good to be fit (they were a sports college so their was things about fitness everywhere), and secondly (and I think more importantly), that you can achieve anything if you are dedicated enough. Both of these reasons I think are good enough to host the 100k challenge.
So because of that, I though why not share the 100k challenge with you lot. However, there is a slight difference in my 100k challenge at school and this one I'm proposing now, and that is that this one must be completed in 10 days or less - making it exponentially more difficult.
The key is consistency. If you were to run the 100,000 metres in 10 days then you will need to run 10,000 metres for 10 days, which is the equivalent of 6.2 miles per day!
Whether you do this in the evening or morning doesn't matter, that's a choice of preference. Me personally, I'm a morning runner but just go at whatever time you want.
Also you're not limited to just one run a day. You could split 10km a day (assuming you're doing it in the course of 10 days and not less) into smaller more frequent chunks. So for example, that could be two 5km runs a day, or maybe four 2.5km runs. Although splitting it up into too many chunks may prove trouble some to stick with.
It's a good idea to keep track of what you've done. If you're going to do 10k a day then I suppose you would think that you wouldn't need to. This is true but that's only if you definitely do 10,000 metres a day. Some days you may fall short by a bit which will mean that you need to overcompensate on other days, but you may also go over 10k some days which will mean you have less to run. It's just more convenient if you do keep track of how much you've ran.
Well then, good luck. :)
"Running is a big question mark that’s there each and every day. It asks you, ‘Are you going to be a wimp or are you going to be strong today?"
Peter Maher