Defeating 2020 one day at a time
A personal pledge has led to an inspiring running tally, writes
In a year that offered amyriad of excuses to stay inside and close the blinds, an ageing athlete has stared down the hurdles of 2020 with his sneakers on.
When Jason Stuckey, 47, set off for a 10 kilometre trot along the riverside walkway in Palmerston North yesterday, he fulfilled a personal challenge of persistence and perseverance; to run every day of the year.
Occasionally it would get to 11pm and he would realise he hadn’t gone for a run. Out would come the sneakers and out the door he’d dash, into the night.
Stuckey said the daily task was about commitment, determination, and seeing whether he was capable of completing the goal. He was.
In 366 days – 2020 was a leap year – he ran 1926.9km in 172 hours and 37 minutes, with 12,143 metres of elevation.
‘‘I’m pretty proud of it.’’
For his final run of the year he was joined by his father Paul and son Luke, for the last 2km, before being presented with a homemade medal and a beer.
Inspiration had struck when Stuckey had seen fellow runners posting about the daily challenge on the app Strava. Following a few years of failed attempts he decided to ‘‘just do it’’.
In February, he injured his calves and hamstrings because his body wasn’t used to the stress of running so frequently.
He reduced the length and distance, but kept his daily promise.
‘‘This is not necessarily the fastest I’ve been. But it’s the fittest.’’
The new year bringswith it a fresh challenge, to increase his speed, and he’s not ruling out revisiting a daily run in 2022.
Stuckey had been an avid runner since he entered a road race when he attended Palmerston North Boys’ High School. He has completed about 50 marathons, including three this year. His first was in Auckland in 2002.
He now calls Hawke’s Bay home, but has been visiting family in Manawatu¯.
When he worked in China for 11 years, teaching English, he found the foreign staff were quite segregated from their Chinese workmates.
‘‘I decided to do a city-wide event to bring everyone together for cultural diversity.’’
He established the Suzhou halfmarathon in 2009.
It was hard to organise, and took two years to get over the line, with approval from the government. It now attracts 40,000 entrants each year.
His time in China also marked the foundation of a running club that boasted members now living on several continents, who were a great source of inspiration and encouragement for each other.
Members of the group had found it difficult to find marathons and races to enter in 2020, so they had been running remotely and together on selected weekends.
‘‘It’s really cool that we are all over the world.’’
‘‘This is not necessarily the fastest I’ve been. But it’s the fittest.’’