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173 mornings to go

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January 1, 2017

As of this morning, I’ve run 192 days in a row. Now I’m shooting for 200, then one year.

I run for my brain. Running each morning relieves stress, enables me to sift through matters and generates ideas.

Hey, it’s not just me, The New York Times’ Gretchen Reynolds (@GretchenReynold) reports that science sees working out, or running, to be “quite beneficial” for your brain.

I started running each morning in April, 2015. I was embarking on a retooling of LexBlog. The decisions that needed to be made would effect people, products, customers and finances. I knew it would be stressful. I knew I needed to stay mentally healthy.

I’ve found running to be the greatest stress reliever in my life since I started running after college. If I wasn’t running marathons with my friend and now my lawyer, Tom Pedreira, during law school, there’s no way I would have graduated. When you’re not that smart, law school is awfully stressful.

I missed a handful of days in 2015 and a couple in the beginning of 2016. After missing a day when I flew to the Bay Area and back in June I thought why not see how many days I could go, maybe even to the end of the year. Knowing myself, it was easier to run each morning than to skip a day a week — I’d just skip a couple more.

Big thanks to Ben at Seattle’s Sound Sports (best running store in Seattle) who turned me onto Hoka One running shoes. In December 2014 he said you’re not chasing runners down from behind and training to race marathons – “you’re old like me and can run regularly without injury with the Hoka One.” He was right.

Big thanks to my COO, Garry Vander Voort, who said it’s okay not to get in to the office first thing. “We’re better off to have you do emails and some social media at home, have a coffee, go for a run and then take the 8:45 ferry in.” I’m an Irish Catholic who’s bred to feel guilty at all times, but Garry was right.

Big thanks to Louis, my yellow lab, who runs with me each morning when I am not traveling. We’re becoming well know by the people on our island.

And thanks to my Dad who ran more mornings than not beginning in the late 1960’s. He and his running, even with Alzheimer’s, served as a good role model.

Another 173 days until a year. All so my brain doesn’t break.

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