You know the popular saying that goes like “he who runs from a fight lives to fight another day”? That was literally me on April 1st when I decided to run and free my mind from the endless mental warfare targeting my daily bread.

At first, I thought it was just stress.

But after spending almost every day monitoring alerts, vulnerability disclosures, infrastructure risks, ransomware campaigns, malware reports, phishing attempts, suspicious authentication logs, leaked credentials, AI-assisted attacks, and companies trying to survive all of it, I realized my brain had quietly entered survival mode.

And the crazy part?

The attacks never stop.

These were some of the things happening around that period:

• Supply Chain Malware reports (March 31, 2026): Reports indicate that CI/CD pipelines potentially ran malicious code between 00:21 and 03:15 UTC.
• OpenClaw Vulnerability (March 29–31, 2026): A critical vulnerability in “OpenClaw” was reported on March 29, with the NVD listing it on March 31, creating a dangerous exposure window.
• Compiègne Agglomeration Attack (France): Data systems for the French Compiègne area were reportedly hit by a cyberattack around March 31, 2026.
• CVE-2026-31431 (“Copy-Fail”): Another vulnerability entering the already overflowing security queue.

These attacks do come normally, but it has now increased like 10x due to the mass adoption of AI.

Everything became faster.

Attackers became faster.

Recon became faster.

Malware development became faster.

Phishing became more believable.

Even panic became automated 😭

Keeping track of everything quickly started becoming a major chore and I genuinely needed to free my mind.

So I started to run.

And somehow that single decision turned into 207km in 30 days.

Day 1

I was optimistic and ready to let go mentally and enjoy a cold run.

To be honest, I really enjoyed it considering it was my first proper run after over 9 years 😭

I honestly expected my lungs to resign halfway through the run.

But surprisingly, my body remembered something my mind forgot a long time ago: movement clears noise.

I wasn’t thinking about CVEs.

I wasn’t thinking about production incidents.

I wasn’t thinking about “critical vulnerability requiring immediate patching.”

I was just trying not to collapse.

And for the first time in a while, that felt peaceful.

Day 2

More cyberattack news.

More dashboards.

More notifications.

More “urgent” everything.

But this time I noticed something different mentally.

I acknowledged the chaos, waved at it respectfully, and continued my run knowing fully well that I had things under control.

That was new for me.

Usually my brain likes to keep every unresolved issue open in 73 browser tabs internally 😭

I ran feeling slightly more experienced and weirdly pumped.

At this point I started convincing myself I was basically an athlete.

Day 3

By Day 3, my legs officially submitted a complaint letter.

Everything hurt.

Walking downstairs became a cybersecurity incident on its own.

But mentally?

I started feeling lighter.

Running at night became this strange reset button where the world suddenly became quiet again.

No Slack notifications.

No vulnerability feeds.

No “quick question” messages that somehow become 2-hour investigations.

Just road, breathing, sweat, and silence.

And strangely enough, some of my best technical thinking started happening during these runs.

Day 4

This was the day I started chasing consistency instead of motivation.

Because motivation is a scam sometimes 😭

Consistency is the real engine.

There was no magical feeling this day.

No movie soundtrack moment.

I just showed up and ran.

And honestly, that’s probably where the real transformation started.

Day 5

At this point I noticed something dangerous.

Every day I wanted to beat yesterday’s distance 😭

There was never a better yesterday in terms of kilometres covered.

Even when my body said:
“Please rest.”

My brain replied:
“What if we just do 1km extra?”

This is probably how people accidentally become marathon runners.

Supposed Day 6

I had a blood donation appointment and couldn’t run this day. It was earlier stated for January, but I moved it forward and discovered mid-challenge.

So i didn;t run this day, before I start needing the blood I gave away mid-run 😭😭😂

This was a joke by my friend Kess, it had to be the funniest comment

At that point, I knew people were monitoring my fitness journey like cybersecurity threat intelligence 😂

“Vincent donated blood and still wanted to continue running. This is no longer fitness, this is penetration testing against the human body.” 😭😭😂

Actual Day 6

Coming back after the break felt harder than expected.

It’s funny how quickly the body negotiates comfort.

But once the run started, everything aligned again.

One thing I noticed was that running stopped being only fitness.

It became therapy.

A moving form of silence.

Day 7

One full week completed.

That alone shocked me.

The old version of me would probably have stopped around Day 2 and written motivational quotes instead 😭

But this time was different.

This time, I kept showing up.

Day 8

At this point night runs became part of my identity.

People started recognizing me.

Even the cold somehow became less offensive.

I also noticed my mental endurance improving heavily at work.

The same issues that normally drained me started feeling more manageable.

Day 9

This was one of those runs where I genuinely did not want to go out.

But those are usually the most important runs.

The days motivation disappears are the days discipline introduces itself.

Day 10

Double digits 😭

I started realizing that progress compounds quietly.

The first few days felt impossible.

Now 5km started feeling “normal.”

Which is insane to think about.

Day 11

This was around the point where running started improving how I handled pressure as a cybersecurity engineer.

Because cybersecurity is honestly mental warfare sometimes.

People only see the alerts.

They don’t see the responsibility behind them.

One mistake can affect:

• businesses
• customers
• infrastructure
• finances
• trust

Running helped me process pressure without carrying it permanently.

Day 12

This day felt peaceful.

No pressure.

No chasing records.

Just movement.

And honestly, those became my favourite runs.

Day 13

By now I started enjoying the process more than the stats.

Even though yes… I still checked the stats aggressively after every run 😭

Day 14

This was the point where I realized I had accidentally built a system.

Not motivation.

A system.

And systems outperform emotions long term.

Ironically, cybersecurity taught me that.

Day 15

15 straight days running.

15 straight days cycling.

Honestly, I still don’t fully understand how I pulled it off.

But somewhere between the sweat, silence, cold nights, painful legs, and random deep thoughts during runs, I found balance again.

Not perfect balance.

But enough balance to breathe again.

The Cycling Side

The cycling days felt different from running.

Running forced me to fight mentally.

Cycling felt more exploratory.

It felt like movement without pressure.

Like giving the brain space to wander.

There was this particular night after multiple runs where my legs were already protesting heavily 😭

13, 14, 15 days straight started catching up with me physically.

And for the first time during the challenge, I genuinely considered slowing down a bit.

[Insert Sore Legs Cycling Preparation Image Here]

But somehow even that moment became part of the experience.

Because one thing I noticed throughout the 30 days was this:

Your body adapts faster than your excuses.

The cycling side became my recovery system without me even realizing it.

On days where running felt aggressive, cycling felt freeing.

No pressure.

No pace anxiety.

No “just 1 more km” negotiations with myself 😭

Just movement.

And honestly, some of my clearest thinking happened while cycling quietly at night.

No screens.

No dashboards.

No attack feeds.

No vulnerability disclosures.

Just road, air, and random life thoughts.

Ironically, stepping away from cybersecurity mentally helped me become better at cybersecurity professionally.

I started noticing patterns quicker.

Thinking clearer during incidents.

Responding calmer under pressure.

Even decision making improved.

It turns out your brain also needs patch management 😭😂

Below is my day 16 to 30 cycling stats respectively

And one more thing…

There was never a better yesterday in terms of kilometres covered.

Every day somehow became:
“Let me just beat yesterday small.”

That mindset quietly became addictive in the best way possible.

Not competing with anybody.

Just competing with yesterday’s Vincent.

How These Activities Helped Me as a Cybersecurity Engineer

People underestimate what constant exposure to cyber threats does mentally.

Especially if you genuinely care about the systems and people you protect.

Your brain rarely fully switches off.

You start thinking in alerts.

You start sleeping in logs 😭

Running and cycling helped me:

• think clearer
• reduce stress
• improve consistency
• improve emotional control during incidents
• improve focus
• improve endurance mentally and physically
• regain discipline outside work
• disconnect without actually losing awareness

Ironically, running away from cyber attacks helped me handle cyber attacks better.

Final Thoughts

207km later, I can confidently say this was bigger than fitness.

This was survival.

This was discipline.

This was therapy disguised as cardio 😭

And the funniest part?

Every single day I thought I was just going for “one small run.”

Then somehow one small run became an entirely different lifestyle.

And honestly? I’m probably just getting started with challenging myself.