SIOUX FALLS, SD (Dakota News Now) – Paula Gordon has been on the road her entire life.
“I was a swimmer as a kid and swam in Brookings for the Brookings Swim Club. And then I swam for SDSU,” Paula said.
Her career took her to Sioux Falls, where she worked as a physical education teacher in the Brandon School District.
“One day I realized, ‘I’m in the gym all day watching my students run.’ So I started running with them in 1994-95,” Paula said.
Paula got the idea from a colleague who was a streak runner and had been running every day for 20 years. So she started running and recorded how far she ran every day.
“And that was July 13, 1999. I ran a time of 4.4 seconds. And the beauty of streak running is you don’t have to be fast, and I’m not fast. I’ve never been fast. You don’t have to run very far. It’s one mile for 365 days, and then you can sign up as a streak runner,” Paula said.
She has now been running every day for 25 years, sometimes ten to twelve kilometers a day.
“I’ve gotten a lot of emails like, ‘Wow, you’re number one in South Dakota. You’re number so-and-so for women in the country. You’re so-and-so in the whole country,'” Paula said.
There are challenges such as persistent injuries and other obstacles.
“Running every day means that no matter where you go, you have to find a place to run. I’ve been stuck on a flight before and thought we would be home by noon, but then we were delayed. I’ve run at Denver airport. I’ve run at LAX. Winters are challenging, so I have a wide variety of clothes to wear. Sometimes, especially during a major snowstorm, I just run on emergency routes in the snow and have to be really careful because I know they’re not looking for a crazy runner in a snowstorm. I have a lot of weather apps on my phone. I pay close attention to the weather,” Paula said.
Now that she’s retired, Paula runs more miles and has more time. And she’ll keep running as long as she can.
“One of my goals is to run a mile in every state. I think I have 18 more states to go, and they’re grouped together. But for me, it’s about so much more than just physical exercise. It’s about the emotional side too. It’s really good for my mental health. It’s really helped me to take a little time for myself every day,” Paula said.
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