Milestones

So, over the last couple of weeks I've achieved quite a few important milestones on my year long 5k a day journey.

The first big one, in my head at least was passing the 48 hours of running this year landmark. It's maybe a bit random, but just thinking about the fact that I've spent over two whole days of the year so far, on the road, running blew my mind slightly. It made me think about how much time I spend doing other less productive stuff too! One of the great things I've found with doing this challenge, is the fact that I realise that I do have time to do it. I think people always make the excuse of not having enough time to exercise, me included. Whereas, doing 5k a day has just forced me to make time.

 The other big point of celebration for me, is passing the quarter way mark, day number 94. This run also coincided with me going on probably my best run of the year so far. I went out for a 19km run with a friend out alongside the river Witham, which runs out from Lincoln. It was a nice change to run with someone and experience a bit of nature too.

I'm also well over the 100 days mark and clocked up well over 600 km now. I'm still aiming for 2,500km over the course of the year, which means I need to up my average distances a bit. I need to try and rack up over 200km a month, which I did last month for the first time. The first couple of months of not exceeding 5km means I've got a bit of catching up to do.

But all in all, I'm pretty happy with my progress and setting myself all of these different goals and landmarks is helping me stay focused.

Why I run

When I first started running a couple of years ago, I'm not sure what my motivation for starting was. I think I'd come to a realisation that I wasn't as physically active as I should be and running is a (almost) free and accessible activity.

Around this time, I had also discovered the running and cycling app, Strava through friends and this helped add an extra incentive, as I could track progress and compete against other runners.

But over time, my philosophy and relationship with running has changed quite a lot. I read a profile of a fellow runner from Sweden last week, which I think sums up my current feelings, it said: "I don't train, I don't race, I run!".

I know this probably doesn't sound like a particularly dramatic declaration for motivation, but I found this simple message really powerful and relatable.

I'm not a natural distance runner, I never have been. At school I excelled at athletics, but my limit was 400 metres and rather than being tall and slim, I'm short and broad. Basically, I'm fully aware that at the age of 32, I'm not going to be winning any races, my Pb for 5 km is just over 22 minutes. But, this is okay, I'm not running to race.

In the past, I've taken part in organised events, I took part in my first ever half and full marathons last year and the purpose of going running was to train for these. But training for these events took the joy out of running for me, as I felt obliged to run certain distances, in the knowledge this was needed to cope on the day of the runs.

So the reason I love running, is because of the experience of the act itself. On a good run you have the opportunity to get lost in the moment, to explore what's going on in your head, in your environment and push yourself to your physical, mental and emotional limits.

As a runner, I've also seen parts of my own and other cities that I wouldn't normally see. I've seen times of day and experienced extremes of weather that you'd normally try to protect yourself from. Whatever your level of ability the battle is ultimately against yourself, how hard you want to push yourself is up to you.

At it's worst, running can be painful, exhausting and demoralising. But, at its best running can be an exhilarating, uplifting, an almost spiritual experience and this is my experience the vast majority of the time. This is why I run.