Tomorrow is February 29th, and just like the Olympics and trips to the dentist it only happens once every 4 years. In my opinion that makes it a free day, almost like it doesn’t exist. In fact, I heard that if you race on leap day and you PR it doesn’t even count, you can’t legally claim it as a PR.How you treat your free day says a lot about you. Are you the kind of person who says that it’s an extra day to get a run in, that your mileage should be higher this year than last year because you’ve got 366 days instead of 365? Or do you think that you can take February 29th off and still have 365 days left in the year to accomplish your running goals.
If you are in the middle of a running streak can you take the 29th off and still continue the streak on March 1st? This is probably a question for Just Your Average Joggler as I believe that he is in the middle of a running/joggling streak.
I am of the mindset that if they are going to throw in an extra day every four years it should at the very least be a holiday or a weekend. I propose that every four years we add our leap day as an additional Saturday after the last Saturday in February. In other words, this past weekend we would have had 2 consecutive Saturdays and 1 Sunday. It doesn’t seem fair to have an extra work day thrown into the year just because the earth can’t quite make it all the way around the sun in 365 days. Can’t science do something about this?
Needless to say I am of the mindset that I only need 365 days to get all my running done for the year, so I will probably not be running tomorrow. If I do run tomorrow however, I will not run some other day that I’m scheduled to, just to make up for it. Also, I will not be working tomorrow. I will be at work, but I will not do any work because I’m protesting this extra day that was somehow thrust upon me without my consent. Now, if I could just figure out an excuse as to why I don’t do any work the remaining days of the year I’d be all set.
How will you spend your extra day this year?
It's already the 29th here in New Zealand and I'm at work reading your blog so I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions about how I'm spending my day.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you about the weekend idea! Maybe we can start a petition.
ReplyDeleteAs far as plans for tomorrow? I'm taking a half day off. That way, I won't feel as bad as I might wasting a whole day at work.
Hmmmmmm.... I have a 5km race tomorrow which I'm using for your 5km challenge. I don't think the small print mentioned leap years! How about I race but don't work? or just race slowly? Is that fair?
ReplyDeleteIt's a day for me to get a few extra miles for February. I'm going to "work" some which involves 3 hours of driving and 20 minutes of talking. Then, I run. I'd rather do the extra Saturday though. That's brilliant.
ReplyDeleteHmm. . . I'll be marvelling at the fact that the target ad displaying on your blog's sidebar is for men's diapers! Fantabulous!
ReplyDeleteAnd running.
Jen
Hmm. . . I'll be marvelling at the fact that the target ad displaying on your blog's sidebar is for men's diapers! Fantabulous!
ReplyDeleteAnd running.
Jen
Great idea, Vanilla! I was taking tomorrow off since I have grandma hips, but now I will not feel guilty.
ReplyDeleteI took my "leap day" early ... I am supposed to be running with my running group as we speak but it's just too damned cold. So, I may end up doing a "guilt run" tomorrow to make up for what I've missed today(what kind of car would represent the guilt run -- a Prius? Smart car?).
ReplyDeleteMine is supposed to be a rest day but now I want to run just to say I ran on leap year. LOL
ReplyDeleteOk, so if I spend the "free day" boozin' it up = what does that say about me? Oh YEAH - it says "back to rehab biznatch!" ha ha. kidding. I will probably run. And then hit the bottle.
ReplyDeleteI'm running. I skipped many days, so an extra will get me caught up somewhat.
ReplyDeleteThat, and I'm celebrating my dad's 60th/15th today.
No day off from the Joggling Streak. I tend to look at life in terms of days anyway. Instead of celebrating my birthday, I find it more interesting to celebrate every 100 days of living. I'm up to about 14,200 days now.
ReplyDelete