Winter Solstice initiative: 50K on the Shortest Day

Winter Solstice initiative: 50K on the Shortest Day

Go Outdoors and Do it…

You probably don’t need much of an excuse to Go Outdoors and Do It. Just getting out there, wind on your face, your senses visited by breezy natural aromas and immersed in a soundscape of birds and bugs–those are reasons enough. And, there’s that orchestra of tree music strummed by fingers of wind playing the forest canopy: Oh, and the watery “poik” of fat raindrops on rocks and the gentler patter of dripping foliage. If you are lucky, geographically lucky, the exhilaration of raucous whitewater or the rhythmic rush of surf nearby draws you outdoors.

If you’re like me, you enjoy the internal landscape of personal challenge in the outdoors, too. Uping your game is a thing, for you. Striding rock and soil faster and longer, lifting your heartbeat into a palpable rush, surging blood and rhythmic breathing fueling coordinated motion along mountain trails. Your practiced strides send footfalls that never land on even surfaces but magically miss the loose stones and slippery logs (most of the time). Asphalt “trails” are not your first choice.

Solstice sunset in central Ohio.

The landscapes of the wild outdoors commingled with your internal landscape of desire and challenge enriches opportunity for fuller human experience. There a thousand ways to to experience the outdoors and Outdoor Readiness will introduce initiatives from time to time to encourage you to Go Outdoors and Do it.

How about attempting 50 kilometers during daylight hours on the Winter Solstice, #50KonTheShortestDay? Not up to a daylight hours 50K at your latitude? Take a headlamp–Go Outdoors and Do it.

You might run it. You might walk it. You might ski it. You might paddle it. Just, Go Outdoors and Do it.

Get ready for it–condition for it. Fifty kilometers is a bit over thirty-one miles. That’s a challenging walk or run any time of year, anywhere. In snow country, it’s a challenge for ski touring, too.

Winnipeg Manitoba might be the place to ski it, you have eight hours daylight, there.

Minneapolis Minnesota enjoys about eight and three-quarters hours of daylight.

Columbus Ohio enjoys about nine and a quarter hours daylight.

Atlanta Georgia, a bit under ten hours daylight.

Central Florida beaches enjoy daylight for over ten hours.

Wherever you may be, prepare and do it.

Tom Bain, Outdoor Readiness

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