2 Mile Challenge
On May 1st I decided to challenge myself with a month long 2 Mile Challenge. For the month of May I will walk/run/bike/bus regardless of rain/snow/sleet or hail to any destination within two miles of my home. This has proved fairly enjoyable throughout the first week. However, my husband and I had an uncomfortable ride home from brunch on Saturday as it began raining just before we were about to leave and continued to the entire way home (though our bike ride was only a mile and a half so our discomfort was short lived and it continued to rain the rest of the afternoon which made me happy it didn’t stop as soon as we got home). Also, previous to this challenge I found myself driving to work (which is only 1 mile from my home!) because I had too much to carry or had errands to run after work. Though a one-mile commute requires much less petroleum than the average commute, one mile is also an extremely feasible distance for human powered modes of transportation. My excuses should not have been as hindering as I made them to be, espeically considering I promote the reduction of petroleum use as a living. But I really needed something to force myself to stop taking the easy way out. With this challenge I have found it is actually easy to save my errands for one day or pair them with another longer trip. I’ve also streamlined what I’m brining to and from work, which I think was healthy to do anyway. Overall I am greatly enjoying this challenge and I’m hoping some of you might join me! You could challenge yourself for a month or choose a week or a specific day of the week to ditch your vehicle. This is also a good time to begin because Friends of Pathways launched the 2013 Commuter Choice Challenge, sign up or in and log your miles (HERE). If you don’t have a team feel free to join ours, Yellowstone-Teton Clean Energy Coalition, scroll all the way down as we are the last team listed. I’ll be updating with pictures when I remember to take them! Let me know what your personal challenge is and I would love to see pictures! Post them on our facebook page or send them to Alicia@ytlceanenergy.org.