MILESTONE
Warning: Stat boredom is about to commence... it was an innocuous, aimless, loopy three mile jaunt around Clitheroe with tired legs. Nothing inspiring, nothing much worthy of mention aside from the completion of 100 days of consecutive running in 2016. The great Ron Hill has gone over fifty years running every single day. But I'm not great and I'm no Ron Hill, so for me who had previously barely scratched more than a weeks worth of continuous running at a time, this was a noteworthy milestone. It was also a statement of intent to myself that unlike previous build ups to the Three Peaks race, I was putting in some groundwork this time around. Again, not in the class of the classier, but significant by own standards of typical mileage. 100 days has covered just shy of 657 miles and averaged out at a 46 mile week. Just a single 40 something week would have stood out as a heavy loaded one in previous preparations, whilst in ten years of running, only twice or three times have I surpassed the half century mark in a week's mileage and this year I have done that on five occasions (well, six if we can include a 49.4) There goes another stat attack. I'm getting a bit obsessed with this mileage logging, I freely admit.
With just over three weeks until race day I have, as previously noted, avoided the temptation of any other races and can't regret that because here I am, fit and still running every day. With a family week away booked on the Maltese island of Gozo, day 103 is going to be the first run-less one of the year - provided we are on time at the airport that is. Last time we ventured by air, to Italy, there was an intense 600 metre dash to the terminal and we only just made it on board.