1000 miles run

12 miles into the New Forest Marathon last Sunday I passed the 1000 mile mark for this calendar year. This is the second time I have reached that total, having completed a total of 1008 miles in 2015. In that case I think it was pretty much the last day of the year that I hit four figures so I am really quite astonished to have reached the same total (actually I have now run 1014 miles this year) by mid-September. With 3.5 months of the year still to go I will probably get my total annual mileage up towards 1200 miles taking into account the fact that as the nights draw in and I become less focused on training for events my mileage per week is bound to drop a bit. Looking back at my monthly totals it is obvious that it was my main training months in the early part of the year, ahead of the Somerset Flat 50 Miler in May, that have boosted my annual total. I tailed off a lot in June and July (post-ultra) but picked up a bit in August. For the record I ran 946 miles in 2016, 691 in 2014 (my first full year running) and 372 in 2013 although I only started running in April that year.

I think I’d like to try and hit 1200 miles next year by completing at least 100 miles each calendar month. That seems like an achievable but challenging target to me.