Of course Mark Zuckerberg finished his year of running
Mark Zuckerberg showed off completing his annual personal challenge with a congratulatory Fast Company profile and some interesting videos full of WTF moments. Over the course of a year, the CEO of Facebook had crafted an at-home personal assistant that turned his lights on and off, toasted his bread and spoke Mandarin, among other things.
But the so-called Jarvis, voiced by God, wasn't Zuckerberg's only New Years challenge for 2016. Back on Jan. 4, Zuckerberg told the world (aka posted on Facebook) that he also planned to run 365 miles this year.
At the time the CEO wrote: "This is a lot of running, but it's not a crazy amount. It's a mile a day, and at a moderate pace it's less than 10 minutes of running per day." Mashable's own Chris Taylor called out Zuckerberg for inaccurately defining "less than 10 minutes" as a "moderate place."
But regardless of the pace, Zuckerberg put forth his challenge and invited the Facebook community to join him. He created a public group called A Year Of Running, not unlike his Year Of Books the year prior, where he would share updates and so could members.
So what ever happened with Zuckerberg's fitness challenge? Well, you might have forgotten that he completed it himself back in July, as he dutifully announced in another Facebook post.
I started off the year only running a few miles at a time. Now I can go out and run 20 miles on a Sunday morning and feel pretty good. I've also worked on speed, and my fastest mile so far is 5:53.
I've found running is a great way to clear my head, to get more energy and to find time to think about challenges I'm working through at Facebook and our philanthropy. When I'm traveling, running is a great way to explore a new city and kick jet lag before a packed day of meetings.
But the year of running wasn't over for Zuck after that. He upped his challenge to train for a triathlon. But as he told comedian Jerry Seinfeld on Facebook Live in June, he had broken his arm while biking and therefore had to pause swimming.
Zuckerberg has yet to share a date for when he will complete a triathlon.
Though he has been quiet on his own fitness challenge, he recently shared the story of Nicolas Lemonnier via a video on his Facebook.
As the video shows, Lemmonier created a Facebook group called Run Eco Club, where participants are encouraged to pick up one piece of trash for every mile they run.
Over the year, the group grew to more than 126,000 members who came from 195 countries and shared more than 84,000 posts.
Other members of the community have posted to Zuckerberg's Facebook group with their personal stories of weight loss and other healthy lifestyle changes.
Since he shared several videos of his personal challenge to build an AI butler, can we expect videos of Zuckerberg demonstrating his fitness routine? We're waiting.
Topics Facebook
Kerry Flynn is a business reporter for Mashable covering the tech industry. She previously reported on social media companies, mobile apps and startups for International Business Times. She has also written for The Huffington Post, Forbes and Money magazine. Kerry studied environmental science and economics at Harvard College, where she led The Harvard Crimson's metro news and design teams and played mellophone in the Band. When not listening to startup pitches, she runs half-marathons, plays with puppies and pretends to like craft beer.
