I got the idea for a Hanukkah running streak after seeing a 12 Days of Christmas club on Strava.
That club mentioned running the 12 days in kilometers, but that seemed like it would start out with too little mileage for me, since I’m already running at least a mile a day as part of the Runner’s World Run Streak (read my post on starting that here, and I’ll post a follow-up once I’m finished) and the #WeavStreak (post to come this week on the Weav Run app). As an American, I also think in miles rather than kilometers — that group had been set up in England.
But I also didn’t want to do the 12 Days of Christmas in miles, because that would mean running 10, 11 and 12 miles on three consecutive days — after running eight and nine miles the days before. No thanks!
I celebrate both holidays, and I thought of the idea to run the mileage each night/day of Hanukkah. I’d run one mile on the first night, two on the second, and so on.
The second night I did have evening plans, so I did my run — and lit my menorah — in the morning, but for the most part I lit the menorah at night, even if I did my run earlier in the day.
It wasn’t too tough to get these runs in, although my legs did get tired by the end. But I’m still streaking!
Dec. 12 – First night of Hanukkah: I ran one mile after getting in 3.5 miles with my friend Bob at the Eastern Shore Running Club group run.
Dec. 13 – Second night of Hanukkah: I had evening plans directly after work, so I ran two miles in the morning.
Dec. 14 – Third night of Hanukkah: I ran three miles with my friends Chuck and Christel during the Midshore Multisport run. The run was five miles and I was thinking I would just stop my watch at three and restart it for the other two, but I wasn’t feeling great after indulging in holiday goodies earlier that day, so I decided to just end my run at three miles.
Dec. 15 – Fourth night of Hanukkah: I did this four-mile run on the treadmill. I rarely run on the treadmill, but I do pay for a gym membership and it was kind of gross outside when I left work, so I decided to. For each mile, I started out at a lower speed and increased the speed each quarter mile to keep it interesting, and then I started over with that when I started a new mile. It was pretty hot on this indoor run, so I did take a very short break after running two miles.
Dec. 16 – Fifth night of Hanukkah: I got five miles in before leaving that afternoon for a family Hanukkah celebration “across the bridge,” as we say around here on the Eastern Shore (for non-locals, that means going across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge — to the Baltimore/Washington, D.C. areas).
Dec. 17 – Sixth night of Hanukkah: I ran six miles with my friend Grizzly, starting in the late morning. It was nice to have her company for a weekend run!
Dec. 18 – Seventh night of Hanukkah: This was the only day I did not get the exact number on my watch in one run, but I had a good reason. I had already planned to do the Rudolph Run, which is a run that is in the shape of Rudolph, with the Pemberton Running Club. Since I knew there would be food and drinks afterward, I wanted to run my additional mileage beforehand.
I knew the Rudolph course was 4-point-something miles, and I had also wanted to run the shape of a menorah, so I did that beforehand. Between running to the start of the menorah course I created, running the menorah, running back and then running the Rudolph course, I ended up with 8.35 miles that night.
Dec. 19 – Eighth night of Hanukkah: The last night of Hanukkah again fell on an Eastern Shore Running Club group run night. Our group runs are normally 3.5 miles, but I invited the group to run with me for my eight if they wished. My friend Connie did the full eight with me (and she had already run three miles earlier that day)!
This was a fun new way to celebrate the holiday. I think I’ll have to come up with a new map for next year — maybe a dreidel! Hope you had a great Hanukkah if you celebrate!
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This is such a cool idea. While I’m not much of a runner, I’m sure I could figure out something similar to do for next year.
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Thank you!! You have a whole year to come up with next year’s idea! 🙂
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This is such a great idea! I should’ve done this. Except I’ve never run more than 6 miles before, so the last two would’ve been kind of tricky. Something to think of next year 🙂 Happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas!
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Thank you!! It got a little tough even though I have run that distance before. Maybe you can find a fun way to do it – like a mile each day or something like that!
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