(Yes, even more so than usual…)
Today was my 365th
consecutive day of running at least a mile! I’VE DONE IT!!!
I celebrated with a 13.65mi (21.96km) run to mark 1 year / 365 days. Today’s was also my 80th run over the past 365 days of 13.1mi (21.08km) or more in length. 80 half marathons in a year - can’t complain! Total distance covered over the past 365 days: 2,978mi (4,792km), an average of 8.15mi (13.13km)/day. That total is the equivalent of… er, Santa Margherita Ligure (in North West Italy, where I grew up) to Sheffield (in the North of England, where I’m from) and back, and then back up to London. And it would still leave me with another 50 miles! Yikes… sounds like a lot when I put like that… as it does if I say John O’Groats to Land’s End, back up to John O’Groats, back down to Land’s End and all the way back up to… er, Hartlepool…
I’ve run in sun, rain and snow… I’ve run in the UK (England, Wales and Yorkshire), in the USA, in Germany, in Italy, in Sweden, in Denmark, in France, in Ireland… I’ve run at midnight, at dawn, at noon and in the evening…
I celebrated with a 13.65mi (21.96km) run to mark 1 year / 365 days. Today’s was also my 80th run over the past 365 days of 13.1mi (21.08km) or more in length. 80 half marathons in a year - can’t complain! Total distance covered over the past 365 days: 2,978mi (4,792km), an average of 8.15mi (13.13km)/day. That total is the equivalent of… er, Santa Margherita Ligure (in North West Italy, where I grew up) to Sheffield (in the North of England, where I’m from) and back, and then back up to London. And it would still leave me with another 50 miles! Yikes… sounds like a lot when I put like that… as it does if I say John O’Groats to Land’s End, back up to John O’Groats, back down to Land’s End and all the way back up to… er, Hartlepool…
I’ve run in sun, rain and snow… I’ve run in the UK (England, Wales and Yorkshire), in the USA, in Germany, in Italy, in Sweden, in Denmark, in France, in Ireland… I’ve run at midnight, at dawn, at noon and in the evening…
…in terms of
official races, I’ve run two marathons, four half marathons and one ultra… I've
run under the
Brandenburg Gate, up
the Alpes Maritimes and back along the Promenade des Anglais, to Portofino, by the Charles
River in Boston, in
front of Kastrup Airport, between Lund and Dalby…
and it’s been a blast!
. . .
Ten lessons I’ve
learnt about me and about running over the past year:
1. If you have to decide whether to run, you probably won’t. If you know you’ll be running, you will.
2. Running in the mornings suits me and my family’s dynamics. It helps me focus the mind for the day ahead: I don’t listen to music while running, I enjoy the peace around me. Moreover, if I left it to the evening, after a day’s work and having put the kids to bed, I’d be more likely to sit down on the sofa and not get up.
3. That said, I run better when I’m fully awake. When it’s brighter. But I’ve got a job to do and two kids to raise, so 5:05 and 6:06 alarms it is!
4. There are times when I would much rather stay in bed when it’s dark, wet and windy outside, sure – but that’s where 1. and 2. kick in. And kicks my backside.
5. Completing a year-long runstreak without Twitter and/or Strava would be nigh-on impossible. For me, anyway.
6. Running every day improves recovery. Counter-intuitive I know, but it does.
7. Do I run because I am healthy or am I healthy because I run? I believe it’s a bit of both. Certainly being able to get out there for at least a mile every day suggests something’s going right. I only had to run the morning after a seizure on one occasion – fingers crossed it’ll be one day less than that over the next year. And yes, there have been days when I was bricking it going out to run… but that’s when one my beloved sons had brought a stomach bug home!
1. If you have to decide whether to run, you probably won’t. If you know you’ll be running, you will.
2. Running in the mornings suits me and my family’s dynamics. It helps me focus the mind for the day ahead: I don’t listen to music while running, I enjoy the peace around me. Moreover, if I left it to the evening, after a day’s work and having put the kids to bed, I’d be more likely to sit down on the sofa and not get up.
3. That said, I run better when I’m fully awake. When it’s brighter. But I’ve got a job to do and two kids to raise, so 5:05 and 6:06 alarms it is!
4. There are times when I would much rather stay in bed when it’s dark, wet and windy outside, sure – but that’s where 1. and 2. kick in. And kicks my backside.
5. Completing a year-long runstreak without Twitter and/or Strava would be nigh-on impossible. For me, anyway.
6. Running every day improves recovery. Counter-intuitive I know, but it does.
7. Do I run because I am healthy or am I healthy because I run? I believe it’s a bit of both. Certainly being able to get out there for at least a mile every day suggests something’s going right. I only had to run the morning after a seizure on one occasion – fingers crossed it’ll be one day less than that over the next year. And yes, there have been days when I was bricking it going out to run… but that’s when one my beloved sons had brought a stomach bug home!
 |
| The usual armpits / Totley vest combo on display in Stockholm |
9. Running is a great ice-breaker. More people run than I suspected. And lines like “I run every day” or “I run about 80mi/week” generally engender some response…
10. Running requires a balance of quantity and quality. In fact, forget that…
…running requires
quality. Quantity alone is pointless: its only value is when it is within a
broader structure and a specific purpose. With runstreak, it’s hard to lose
sight of that. But focus can be re-established.
. . .
 |
| Taken on the Alpes Maritimes - there wasn’t much point running all the way to Genoa, my parents were in the UK! |
My favourite five runs
from the past 365 days? Oh, gu’on then… in reverse order:
5. Longest Day Run. Not as special for me as for some of you out there, just because I ran it on my own – but still special.
4. A run in the hills surrounding the town where I grew up in Italy, with childhood friend Michele. Lovely to see familiar sights in a different light.
3. Greater Manchester Marathon. My first marathon. The day I earnt my stripes.
2. Running up the Alpes Maritimes near Nice. I love Nice: lived there and enjoyed its mixture of my British and Italian heritage. And there was something about setting off up the Alps at 3:30am that was just magic. The “climbing over a gate to avoid missing the flight home” bit wasn’t ‘magic’, as such… but it’s certainly memorable!
Right, that’s
enough gratuitous self-indulgent self-adulation!
Congrats to anyone who’s on, has been or will be on a runstreak – regardless of length. I find I keep motivated by setting goals and being able to measure results: that’s why GPS helps me so much. So hitting nice-sounding target like Day 100, Day 200 and Day 300 was nice. But ‘nice’ is probably as far as it went. But today… 365…
Congrats to anyone who’s on, has been or will be on a runstreak – regardless of length. I find I keep motivated by setting goals and being able to measure results: that’s why GPS helps me so much. So hitting nice-sounding target like Day 100, Day 200 and Day 300 was nice. But ‘nice’ is probably as far as it went. But today… 365…
…well, today meant something…
…today felt like another of those lifetime memberships runners can get. Like running a marathon, running a 100-mi week, running seven Half Marathon distances in seven days… that’s stuff that stays with you. Even if you never tell a soul, they matter to you. That said, I might have told the odd soul here and there.
But now… now it’s time to reset the counter. For we begin again tomorrow. It’s been a good 365, but we keep on running. Just… with a short weekend 3-miler.
What – you thought I was stopping? Nah! Oh no, that’s not what I meant with that opening “I’ve done it!” – it wasn’t meant to infer the challenge is over! 365 was my minimum target, yes: but… why stop? Indeed, “resetting the counter” is somewhat misleading: tomorrow will be day 366, make no mistake!
…today felt like another of those lifetime memberships runners can get. Like running a marathon, running a 100-mi week, running seven Half Marathon distances in seven days… that’s stuff that stays with you. Even if you never tell a soul, they matter to you. That said, I might have told the odd soul here and there.
But now… now it’s time to reset the counter. For we begin again tomorrow. It’s been a good 365, but we keep on running. Just… with a short weekend 3-miler.
What – you thought I was stopping? Nah! Oh no, that’s not what I meant with that opening “I’ve done it!” – it wasn’t meant to infer the challenge is over! 365 was my minimum target, yes: but… why stop? Indeed, “resetting the counter” is somewhat misleading: tomorrow will be day 366, make no mistake!
 |
| Nice by night. (If 4am is still night, that is.) |
And sure, there are
people who think I’m not just crazy, but self-harming. People have told me this
isn’t the best way to train for a marathon: they might be right, I don’t know.
Personally it’s helped me run two 3:31’ maras: and, whilst I could have done
better, especially second time round, I don’t feel it was the running every day
component that prevented that, rather the contemporaneous training for events
as different as two Half Marathons, a 40-mi Ultra and a Marathon. As I’ve said
all along, when my body tells me to stop I will listen. Stop chuckling at the
back – it’s true! I’ve had niggles, of course I have: but nothing that warranted
stopping. How do I know? I’ve been out there every day. Even my body wouldn’t
have been that slow in catching up with me…
…anyroad, enough. Thanks
All for your support and encouragement, or for just reading my warblings – most
of all, thanks Karen x! Thanks to each and every one of you who’s tweeted or posted nice words today: means a lot. I’ve learnt a lot over the past
365 days: not just about me as a runner, but about new friends, about the best
route from Villefranche-sur-Mer to Nice – and about plenty of other stuff. Because…
…even when the post
may suggest otherwise, full of stats, numbers, dates and routes, it’s not just
about the running. It never is.
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