Even at age 87, my grandpa keeps up with his streak.
It’s no longer a jogging streak — he used to run 11 kilometres every day, then five kilometres for 2,437 consecutive days before twice landing in the hospital with atrial fibrillation. Instead, his streak is now walking 8,000 steps a day. On Aug. 1, he hit day 200.
Inspired by him, I started my own streak: jogging five kilometres every day in the early months of the pandemic. I had nothing else to do and, like everyone else, needed to get out. I didn’t know how long it would last, but with the world at a standstill, there was nothing stopping me.
Five years later, I’m still going; Aug. 11 was day 1,933. I anticipated most of the benefits. I feel better after I run, physically and mentally. I’m less stressed. I jog solo and appreciate the 25 minutes of meditation I’m guaranteed every day.
But jogging every day has also had an unanticipated, profound benefit: it has forced me to go outside, no matter the weather or what was going on in life, and appreciate the world around me. In blizzards and downpours and ice storms and heat waves, I’ve learned to take the world as it is and enjoy it for all it is.
I’ve jogged through all sorts of weather. In the coldest, a -42 wind chill in Ottawa, my snot froze into an icicle. It wasn’t pretty. I’ve jogged through pouring rain, the rare thunderstorm, and feet of snow. I jog when it’s icy, although perhaps not wisely — I slip a few times every winter. (I’ve tripped on city sidewalks in the summer, too. That’s far more embarrassing.)
There have been untold hours of lost sleep, including one particularly egregious 4 a.m. jog in Barcelona, and plenty of odd spots, including the departures terminal of the Edmonton International Airport. (Worry not, that was only a speedwalk as I recovered from a knee injury.)
As my grandpa, Allan Parker, when us grandchildren surprised him on his 2,000th day of jogging five kilometres, “It’s not a question of whether I do it, it’s a question of how I do it.â€
My grandpa, a , used to run every day with his students and tally the distances on a cross-country map of Canada, a program he called “Jography.†He started his streaks later in life.
“I find security in streaks,†he told me over the phone from his house in Waterdown, where he still lives across the street from the school where he taught for 28 years. “It’s a motivation for going out. If you don’t feel like it or the weather’s bad, but you’re in a streak, then you do it.â€
As a lifelong baseball fan, the goal of his five kilometre streak was to match Yankees legend Lou Gehrig’s streak of 2,130 consecutive games played. (For Gehrig, that stretch ended due to complications from ALS.) Once he surpassed Gehrig, he set his sights on Cal Ripken Jr.’s all-time record of 2,632 consecutive games.
My grandpa jogged through prostate cancer and into his 80s. He even kept up the streak when he was hospitalized with atrial fibrillation, walking from the head of his hospital bed to the washroom and back again 250 times.
But the second time he was hospitalized for the same reason, he decided to end the streak at 2,437 consecutive days.
“I said, ‘This is serious business,’†he told me. “The streak had to come to an end, because maybe I would have come to an end.†He was at peace with the decision, though he said he regretted finishing 195 days shy of his goal.
But the man is unstoppable. On Jan. 14 of this year, after surgeries and treatments for colon cancer, he started a streak of walking 8,000 steps.
“I had gotten in the habit of just staying indoors and sitting, so I needed to get back to basics and get out there and walk,†he said. He does it, he said, not just for exercise, but for socialization with everyone who knows him along his route.
For me, it’s mostly about health. But what I’ve also come to realize is simply being outside is a treat of its own. Experiencing the extremes of heat and cold, rain and snow — and the picture-perfect days, too — has given me a new appreciation for the world around me.
Some days, my jog is one of many things I do that day. On others, it is the only time I leave the house. Either way, I know it is there as an invitation to experience the great outdoors, even for just 25 minutes.
And maybe, in a couple of years’ time, I’ll hit my goal: 2,437 consecutive days jogging, just like my grandpa.
Every kid needs the same invitation to experience the outdoors and take the world as it is. The ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ Star Fresh Air Fund provides grants to day and overnight camps that subsidize fees for children whose families couldn’t otherwise afford to send them. If you’re able, consider donating and give kids a chance to make a new friend, push their boundaries and experience the outdoors.
The ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ Star Fresh Air Fund
GOAL:Ìý$650,000
TO DATE:Ìý$636,230.00
How to donate:
Online:
To donate by Visa, Mastercard or Amex using our secure form.
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Mail to the ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ Star Fresh Air Fund, 8 Spadina Ave., ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½, ON M5V 0S8
By phone: Call 647-250-8282
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