My 2,000 miles-tone

5 min readJan 16, 2019

Recording progress the night before I hit my goal (January, 2019)

Previously on Harold’s Medium story…Man gets promotional Apple Watch for opening online brokerage account, watch provides “rings” for completed goals, begins completing rings each day.

Noticing he’s continuously closing all three rings, man makes this his new obsession. Man hits 500 miles of cumulative walking without missing a day. Writes about it.

Hits 1,000 miles of cumulative walking without missing a day, writes a second article. Man somehow manages to keep his day job.

January 15, 2019:
Reaches 2,000 miles of walking. Streak intact.

13 lessons learned after 200+ days of continuous walking

Sound. Cyber Monday sale on Sony Noise-canceling headphones. You don’t realize how loud the average city day is until you remove the ambient sound. Couple that quiet with an engaging podcast and you can really get lost in an interview or compelling book.
The sunrises in San Francisco and in Marin County can be breathtaking. It’s hard to not photograph them (I’ve shared a few below)
California weather makes this goal way more attainable. There’s little to no rain and temperatures rarely dip below 40 degrees. A short trip to Mexico made the streak difficult because of extreme heat & humidity.
To keep the streak safe, I bought a treadmill. One of the biggest surprises was how much harder it was to stay committed to walking while on a treadmill. I figured being able to watch a TV show or movie would make me forget about the walking even more, but the temptation to get OFF of a treadmill is completely distracting. I can “quit” at any moment if so inclined. It can be excruciating.
Treadmill lesson #2: a lack of wind or any air blowing on your face makes a treadmill walk much warmer. This isn’t a good thing, the outside walk has built in air-conditioning.
Treadmill lesson #3: Nothing keeps you motivated to finish a walk like physically being miles away from where you started. You have no choice, you have to keep walking in order to get back to your starting point.
Seeing the same faces each morning on a walk is comforting. Routine actions are soothing. The absence of actually speaking with these people builds a narrative and storyline that your brain works on like a needlepoint that takes years to finally finish. I’m convinced the guy handing out tour guides on Fisherman’s Wharf has a heroin problem. I believe the Boudin baker has loftier goals for herself but is powering through this job trying not to make eye contact with the tourists that photograph her making her signature sourdough crab or other figurines. Her older counterpart looks like she’s done this same job for at least thirty years. There’s a runner who grows her hair out and colors it purple. There’s a man who runs like he’s in constant pain.
The smell of rotting food on sidewalk composting bin is ten times worse than any poop you could put directly in front of my nose.
If you grew up with FM or AM radio, you may appreciate the joy of podcasts. With certain audio apps you can change the speed of the playback. I started at 1x, then moved to 1.5x and then 2x. I’m now at 2.4x speed (not going to go higher, I don’t think) and it doesn’t impact my enjoyment at all. At twice his normal speed, Seth Godin sounds like he’s speaking normally. Donald Trump at half speed sounds like he’s a drunk idiot. At normal speed he sounds like a regular idiot.
A great interview makes an hour go by in an instant. I’ve included my podcast list at the bottom of this page.
Jerry Seinfeld has been quoted about his strategy: “your only job is to not break the chain” — the chain being any continuous process (in his case writing every day) — This makes a fairly large goal much more attainable. All I have to do tomorrow is complete the daily goal.
I don’t meditate in a traditional sense. I’m pretty sure the quiet I achieve (specifically the calm and ability to see more nature and more beauty as a result of just walking and observing) is meditative and has made me more calm and appreciative. It’s amazing to me that after an almost 2-hour walk, most people are starting their day. It feels like I’m given early admission to a theme park before the crowds.
Don’t believe the coroner: my cause of death will almost certainly be Rustic Bakery’s butter croissant. Arsicault in SF comes in a close second.

So what’s next? Go for 365 continuous days? I guess so. Hard to imagine weather or getting sick or injured won’t knock me out of contention, but there’s so much to listen to and I do need to not break the chain…

My 2,000 miles-tone

January 15, 2019:Reaches 2,000 miles of walking. Streak intact.

Written by Harold Mann

January 15, 2019:
Reaches 2,000 miles of walking. Streak intact.