At the beginning of the 2018 I was looking for a new way to challenge myself. With the help of Hike Like a Woman I learned of the 365 Mile Challenge. When reading the requirements of this challenge I figured it would be easy to get in 365 miles within the year. I walk and hike a lot, and when we have snow, I cross country ski. The requirements of the challenge is do to 365 self propelled miles either walking, hiking, running, bike riding, paddling, snowshoeing or cross country skiing. My daughter, eight at the time, wanted to join the challenge with me. We printed off two of the tracking sheets and off we went.
I also convinced some of my friends to join the challenge for extra support and motivation. My husband would joined us when he could, but he did not participate in the challenge. We started out strong hiking, walking and skiing whenever we could. Excited when we could fill in another bubble. The challenge pushed us to find more trails to explore so we would not get bored easy.
In the winter months we cross country skied . A couple times we had to jump on the treadmill as the below zero temps were too much to be outside. If you have to do indoor miles you can, but the true goal of the challenge is to get people moving outside.
During the spring our hiking was put on hold a little due to spring sports and tasks around the house, but were still able to get in some miles.
As summer rolled around we went on a lot of adventures with some beautiful views. They did not add up to a lot of miles like I thought they would, but we continued to fill in the circles.
Towards the end of the summer I started a new job that allowed me to be home earlier during day. Many days after school would go for walks. This has became on of my favorite times of the day. This is when my daughter and I would talk about various things. As my daughter gets older I worry that she will not want to continue to talk to me. Thanks to this challenge it has pushed us to get outside after school and work to give us some much needed mother daughter time.
We were able to have some friends join us on the trail, which is always fun.
The last week of December 2018 we finished the challenge.
Almost all of our miles have been from hiking and walking and in the winter cross country skiing when we had snow. A few of them have been from bike riding, which you get your miles faster.
In January 2019 we decided to do the challenge again, as I became an Ambassador for the challenge. I’m happy to report that we finished our challenge on Christmas Eve a week earlier than 2018 All of our miles were outside exploring places around New England and Disney. We continued to explore new trails and doing a lot of after school/walks for some great mother daughter time.
In 2020 we are looking at other challenges., but The 365 Mile Challenge is going strong into the new year. If you are looking for great challenge for you, your family and/or your loved ones to move and get outside more, this is it. If you are not sure you can do the full 365 Mile Challenge there are several mini challenges throughout the year that you can try. Even though I love being outside and exploring new trails, the best part of the challenge was the time that my daughter and I have spent together.
