A Journey of a Thousand Miles Begins With a Single Step

So runs the Chinese proverb.  Whatever your ambition or goal, it remains a dream until you actually do something about it. And if the whole is too big to contemplate, the thing to do is just to start.  Take each step, each day as it comes.  When you reach an obstacle, don't give up - work out how to get around it, or over it, or through it. That might mean a delay, or a detour.  But then you keep going - that's the only way to reach your destination and realise your dream.

Fundraising this week has taken a breather, but then, there is a certain major Christian festival coming up in just a few weeks time.  People have other things on their minds - as do I - so I'm content to let that lie until New Year.  The running, however, continues apace. Longest run this week of 3:09, but the terrain (hilly and mostly off-road on rough paths) meant I didn't quite reach the symbolic half marathon distance of 13.1 miles,  instead covering a smidge under 13 miles.  Total weekly mileage of 30 miles for the first time ever.  And (thanks to the automatic record-keeping of my Garmin watch and the fetcheveryone.com website) - the total mileage I have run since April has reached 496.  So, with a bit of poetic licence, and apologies to The Proclaimers:

And I have run five hundred miles
And I will run five hundred more
Just to be the one who's run
A thousand miles to raise two grand or more

(or should that be:  "... to end up stiff and sore"?)

Yes folks - the way my schedule looks, by the time I start the marathon next April, I will probably have run about a thousand miles.  In other words  for every mile of the marathon, I'll have run close to 40 miles in training.  They say that running shoes should be replaced every 300-500 miles as they lose their cushioning - I bought a new pair in September, which have already done 230 miles, so I'll probably be ready for a new pair in February.

But all that is in the future.  You can only train one day at a time - which is the only way you can live life, really.  Tomorrow is a rest day from exercise,  but on Monday I start another week.  This will be an easier one, perhaps a long run of 2 hours/9 miles, and a weekly total in the low to mid twenties. I'm happy to report that I have felt less tired this week, in fact I felt like doing some speed work on Thursday and Friday, and also ran parkrun this morning in my second fastest time ever.  So with a week of easy running ahead, I hope to feel full of energy the next time I do a 3 hour run. I will crack half marathon distance before Christmas.