It seems that when some people have too much time on their hands they not only get a little stir crazy, but they also start believing they can do things that honestly should not even be on the table.  You know what I’m talking about.  We’ve all seen people doing crazy stunts, Tik Tok dances and music videos with their families that under normal circumstances would have stayed in the family vault forever.  These, however, are not normal circumstances, so let the shenanigans continue.  Most of us appreciate a good challenge.  I have seen challenges for 10 pushups, coming up with song titles with a certain word, number or color in them and we are even  participating in another 90 day challenge called #next90challenge.  I get it, we are bored and our minds and bodies are craving some creativity.

Well, let’s just say G and Swaggy J apparently grew weary of the boredom and terrible weather and  went hunting on YouTube for interesting running videos.  I don’t know that they were actually seeking out a challenge, but as luck would have it for all of us, that is exactly what they found.  So, early Easter morning while some us were still in our pajamas drinking tea and “going to church” the family got a little Easter egg dropped on us by G and Swaggy J.  Now, in their defense, I don’t know that they were “expecting” anyone to follow suit and do the challenge, but when you throw down a challenge with videos and times and post them to our family group text, someone is going to take the bait.

The challenge was to see how fast you could walk or run a mile on the treadmill at a 15% incline.  I can do a mile and 15% sounded pretty doable if I am honest.  We watched their videos and it looked waaaaaaay harder than it sounded.  I was curious and the bait was just dangling in front of us all day.  Finally, while I was making Easter dinner, Sydney bit.

Reese did a video call with G and Swaggy J as proof that it was happening.  Needless to say, they were stoked to have bullied, I mean, motivated us to do the challenge. I have to say, Sydney looked a little sweaty and tired after roughly 20 minutes on the treadmill.  Her husband, Jake, quickly followed suit and crushed everyone’s times.  While he did make it look easier, I could tell he was struggling a bit.  I admit, I was still thinking that it couldn’t be as difficult as it looked. I don’t mean to sound like I thought they were a bunch of sissies or anything,  It’s just my mind was struggling with the fact that it was taking these very fit people almost 20 minutes to complete one  mile. Little did I know it could take way longer…

At this point, I was ready to throw it down.  You might say we are a competitive bunch and the competition was heating up.  As I continued to make dinner, our youngest Reese decided to go for it.  She HATED every single second of it, but completed the task.

At this point if I decided to do the challenge I knew we wouldn’t be eating our Easter dinner until 7:30 or 8:00 so in the interest of our evening and our family dinner, I decided to wait until Monday morning.  I knew I was just putting off the inevitable, but I had a reprieve.

On Monday morning, as luck would have it, it was snowy outside so I had no excuse for not doing the challenge.  I got dressed, drank my water and laced up my shoes.  I was ready.

As soon as I entered 15% on the incline my confidence began to waiver and I soon found out it wasn’t unfounded. My calves were cramping, I was out of breath and did I forget to tell you that you CANNOT touch anything except the speed button?  No holding onto the sides of the treadmill!  What kind of fresh hell was this?  Why did I agree to this?  This is not what I imagined for my 2020 hibernation, I mean, quarantine. One mile took me so much longer than I expected and honestly, I felt out of shape and more than a little embarrassed.  Guys, this challenge is no joke.  It was so much harder than I thought it would be and to make matters worse, the only photo I have looks like Sasquatch coming out of the woods!

I will say that it did inspire me to do it once a week to build my stamina.

Okay, maybe a half mile once in awhile.

Okay, maybe I will never do it again.  Time will tell.