2013 Running Review & Happy New Year

So it's the end of 2013 and what a year it has been! I am down on miles from last year due to bad health and injury and I think another factor is I only ran 1 marathon this year and no Ultras but will be making up for that next year as I have two full marathons and two ultras booked in already!

My original target miles was 637 to match last years efforts but I readjusted this around November when I was suffering with high hamstring tendonitis to 600. I blitzed  two back to back days of 4 mile runs earlier this week to make 600 completely forgetting today was still 2013 and there was also an easy run to do on my marathon training plan so I ended up with the following statistics -

• 135 individual runs - 11 of those runs were on a treadmill
• 603.01 miles total - 44.30 were on treadmill
• Time spent running 108 hours 53 minutes 21 seconds (that's made me want a snooze just reading it)
•  Average Speed 5.4mph 
• Calories burnt 52,260 ( That's the equivalent of 177.1525423729 McDonald's cheeseburgers!)

I entered 18 races and started and completed 16 of them, the other two I am pleased to say were not DNF's, I have a Did Not Finish clean sheet this year but made up for it with two Did Not Starts! For health reasons earlier in the year I had to pull out of the two biggest races  which were the 24 Hour Adidas Thunder Run and The Grim Reaper 40 mile ultra. I'm pleased to say I'm going back for the Grim next year but unfortunatley the Thunder run sold out too fast so that will have to wait until 2015.

The 16 races I did complete consisted of -

 1 x Full Marathon
7 x Half Marathons - including 1 on a treadmill due to the actual race being cancelled due to snow.
3 x 10k's
1 x 5k
1 x 9 mile event
1 x 5 mile event
1 x 20 mile event
1 x 17 mile event which was sunset to sunrise with no given distance to complete.

My favorite race of the year by far was the Holly Challenge Sunrise to Sunset and I am going back for more next year hoping to complete 30 miles in the Summer event as lead up to the Grim.  My target miles for next year is a big increase jumping up to 1000 miles but with two marathons and two ultras on the horizon I'm thinking the miles will look after themselves.

Thank you to all my readers and supporters over the last year you won't have to wait long for another update as I am racing in Dirt Run 10k tomorrow, 2014 will be starting BIG with a little half marathon in a foreign country in 4 weeks then London it's all going on! So all that's left to say is Happy New Year everyone! For anyone that is thinking about taking up running or exercise in the new year as a resolution or just because you want to be fitter and healthier I leave you with this.....