In a world where streaks are often tallied in Snapchat, Goshen College’s 27-year-old  head athletic trainer, Jaelyn Rufenacht, opted for a healthier sequence: running at least one mile every day for 1,000 consecutive days.

In 2020, Rufenacht graduated from GC as a softball student-athlete with a degree in exercise science. The following year, she enrolled at the University of Indianapolis to pursue a master’s degree in athletic training.

While in graduate school, she had to take a fitness test. So, on May 1, 2021, Rufenacht decided to run one mile a day for 30 days, enabling her to get in shape for the fitness evaluation. “As a former college athlete, I didn’t want to embarrass myself,” she said.

Her primary motivation was the fitness test. Although the assignment was done by June, Rufenacht was not. The 30-day running streak was the most intense exercise she had had since her days as a catcher on the GC team. She was just warming up.

Rufenacht decided to keep the challenge going and set new goals. As another motivation, she mentioned how positive the experience was for her. “I felt really good after the runs,” she said.

She decided to challenge herself to do more, with a goal that would last through her entire summer break. In June, she was aiming for 100 consecutive days.

When she completed the 100 days, in August, she finally decided to tell her family about the process. 

Her brother, Logan Rufenacht, said, “She is too strong-willed to back out once she starts a challenge, so I think our whole family expected her to follow through … I always expected that she would reach her goals.”

As the days went by, Rufenacht was motivated to complete the challenge. As soon as the 2021 summer ended, she simply kept going, and in July of 2022, she was hired as an assistant athletic trainer for GC, switching her running location to the streets of Goshen.

Once the streak reached 500 days on Sept. 13, 2022, she decided to set the 1000-day streak. “When I thought about not running, I would think how upset I would be about it later,” she said. “In the end, I just really wanted that feeling of accomplishment.”

Rufenacht ran through 11 different states and two countries. “If I had a really busy day, there would be times where I ran at 4 a.m. or 10 p.m … To do that after all you want to do is crawl in bed after a long day is demanding,” she said.

However, she recognized how much of a path to liberation the process was even when the full-time student role made the situation complicated. “Running every day just cleared my mind,” she said. “It was 10 minutes when nobody bothered me.”

As another benefit from the challenge, Rufenacht said that what started as a simple way to improve her physical condition for a test influenced the fitness of others’ lives. “I went to Alabama to visit my friends on Thanksgiving of 2023 and their dad told me how much he had heard about my journey and how he wanted to run with me,” she said. “I also ended up joining a running club in May 2023 and one of the members did 100 days because of me.”

On the 1,000th day, on Jan. 26, 2024, Rufenacht ran 10 miles along the Pumpkinvine Nature Trail in Middlebury as a way to celebrate the accomplishment.

“On the last mile, I shut down my music and thought about how 1,000 days had led up to this moment,” she said, “It was just me by myself, exactly how I started it.”

As soon as her challenge was over in January, she still was not ready to step away from running. Rufenacht started to train for the Gnaw Bone Half-Marathon, which she ran in May of this year in Brown County, Indiana. After the race, she finally decided to give herself a three-month break from the sport after three intense years.

Since becoming the head athletic trainer in July, she has started running again. Looking ahead, Rufenacht envisions running, but she is not sure if she will ever be up to the 1,000-day challenge again. “There are other running goals I would rather do,” she said. ”I want to run a marathon and would also love to do an ultramarathon on a trail.”

 Rufenacht highlighted the importance of having a stable support system. “I ran in days with the heat over 100 degrees and a negative five-degree wind chill,” she said. “You have to have people who support you along the way and who want to see you succeed.”