Can you imagine running every day for over a year without a day off?
It’s been a while since I’ve wrote a blog, but to be fair my world is just mad at the moment –let me rewind to the beginning and you might understand why.
The date is 31st December 2016 and 6 of us, that being myself, my wife Nicola, Steve Wolfe, Diane Davey, Marie Debont-Booth and Ian Walker all agree to start running our 5km a day runs a day early – meaning we are now running that distance for 366 consecutive days.
There is a reason I wanted to start early, it incorporates a Saturday parkrun. Using parkrun is a big part of this challenge for all of us as we get to mix-in with local communities, which helps us spread the word about the challenge and also gives us the opportunity to meet and run with new faces.
After a few weeks we unfortunately lose Ian through injury leaving the group with five runners. January is a hard month, we are all seeing and feeling our bodies adjust to having to run every day which means plenty of aches, pain and at times, fatigue – but we are a close group, every day we individually post our daily updates and congratulate/comment/show a ‘like’ to every post.
As January ticks along we encounter snow, ice, freezing and blowy wind and plenty of rain – and most of the runs in the dark, but by day we finish the month and start to dream about the weather and light starting to improve as we enter the February month.
It’s around this time that I confirm I’m actually doing a 10km a day challenge……why is that you may ask? There are a few reasons, one being I was actually running at least 10km every day in January anyway and secondly I wanted to keep running with as many people as I could.
A typical working day week for me now involves a run before or after work and a lunchtime run with my work co-workers during the middle of the day. The ripple effect of these lunchtime runs has been fantastic, to date 15 colleagues have now ran with me and there is potential and interest for that number to keep growing.
February also sees some of us start to step-up the mileage ready for the Brighton Marathon in April. A half marathon ‘fun run’ from Sheppey to Iwade and back with Steve, Nicola, Karl (Chamberlain) and Catherine (Hayward) starts the first of many long runs.
Just 4 days later and with the minimum of 10km each day sandwiched in between, I run a whole marathon (for fun?) when I join Steve, Kay Barker and Sarah Lewry for a run from Sheerness to Leysdown and back – those guys smashed the 20 mile distance, but as I’d already done 3 miles with Nicola before I met them I decided to make it a marathon by running away from them and then back to them to give me the extra 3.2 miles I required whist we were on the last 10 mile leg.
Another highlight was 3 days later running 25km with my buddy Brendon Davey in Gillingham. Our route included all the hills of Hempstead Valley, the climb of Ito Way and a nice run at the Strand and St. Mary’s Island. It was great to have, Brendon’s wife Diane and the other KST gang involved for part of it too.
March continues to see an improvement with the light and weather meaning the leggings and under garments are not being used as regularly – which is a relief with the washing piles, never has my laundry been so big and frequently turning round since I started this challenge…..oh, and I think I’ve improved UK shower gel sales tenfold and should get sponsored by a leading brand.
Anyway, back to the running and this month sees us KST runners enter our first medal event of the year, being the Dartford Half Marathon.
For us all it’s a test with interesting times. Brendon gets a PB whilst Nicola, Emma (Richardson-Smith), Charlotte (Evans MBE), Nicola and Marie all run the event for the first time and get decent times.
Unfortunately poor Diane breaks a bone in her leg – but her ‘never give-up’ attitude means she still finished the 13 mile race by virtually dragging her leg around the route for 10 miles.
You can read more here: http://www.kentsportsnews.com/blog-running-through-the-pain-barrier-14-03-2017/ .
As for Steve, Ben Rogers and I we all PB and come home with a time of 1hr 51 minutes which is 16 minutes off our PBs from last year.
Now into April, and the first day of the month I set my new parkrun PB of 22:07 at Great Lines. It’s been a long way coming and personally I still want to knock about 8 seconds off that, but I need to tread carefully as the last thing I need now is an injury whilst chasing a silly time – it will come, but not quite yet.
April 9th is Brighton Marathon day. It’s my first time at this venue and my 2nd marathon distance this year. I originally planned to be ‘home’ in a time of 4 ½ hours – but despite the heat (hottest day of the year at that point) I somehow manage a time of 4hrs and 12 seconds – arghhh those 12 seconds will play on my mind for ages.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m pleased of the time as it’s 30 minutes better than I expected, but I’ve already booked to go back next year and get under that time.
A detailed story of the event is found in this link, I must say I’m really proud of everyone who ran amongst our group that day, the conditions as highlighted already were too hot for a marathon if I’m honest, but we held our own.
http://www.kentsportsnews.com/blog-brighton-marathon-heats-up-10-04-2017/
A week later most of the marathon aches, pains and fatigue have gone away, running 10km each day after Brighton was certainly ‘interesting’. Nicola, Steve and I also had the privilege of appearing on local Sheppey radio station BRFM, giving us a perfect way of expressing how the challenge has been going to date.
April 23rd and exactly two weeks after the Brighton Marathon, Steve and I bite the bullet and run another marathon with our very good friend Ben Rogers, aka ‘365 Marathon Man’.
This day marked the last marathon of Ben’s 365 marathons in 365 days, so we both felt it was fitting to run alongside such a remarkable guy and one of the reasons why we have carried out our own challenge.
Again, the following link provides a great story of the day (and yes, I had one big embarrassing face-plant just before the halfway mark, meaning I had to run over 13 miles in white clothing with blood dripping all over it).
http://www.kentsportsnews.com/blog-365-marathons-in-365-days-2-24-04-2017/
Now into May, a few of us catch-up with Ben Smith (401 marathon legend) who is over this way for the weekend as a special guest at Chislehurst’s ‘Why Not Run’ event.
I’ve said before, Ben is one of my heroes and biggest inspirations. I must admit I was ‘going through the motions’ a bit the week leading-up to meeting Ben, but his energy and character rubs off on you and it was just the boost I needed – he probably doesn’t know that catching-up with him helped refocus me, but it certainly did.
The Why Not Run event is a successful day, capped with running one of the maddest but funniest 5km’s I’ve ran so far – basically you run two laps around a school and in between buildings and jump stairs etc., but all good fun.
The biggest event for me in May was the Isle of Sheppey ‘Island Run’. This is my home event and I was determined to run well. Normally I’m quite happy to run with people at events, but I had a (slight) selfish head on for this one, I was gunning for a good time and finish position.
My parents and children were at the finish line and I told them to expect to see me finish the hilly 10 miler in 1hr 30mins, but I smash the run and finish in 20th place out of 300+ runners and in a time of 1hr 16 mins.
http://www.kentsportsnews.com/blog-completing-the-island-run-23-05-2017/
With sadness, in the last week my wife Nicola has suffered bad ankle ligament damage which has put her in an airboot and stumbling around on crutches. So at the moment we have lost both her and Diane temporarily, but they’ll be back to complete their 5km challenges before we know it. I’m extremely proud of both of these girls, and they are determined to put these setbacks behind them.
The support from my work colleagues continues. The improvement in some of the runners has been outstanding. Simone Tomlins and Chris Lunn now run a 5km comfortably, Andy James has ran his first 10km event this year and keeps knocking-off 5km PB’s at the Great Lines parkrun.
Then we have Caroline Gould, Caz probably started running seriously about the same time as my challenge started and it’s great to see her improve her distances and times as the months pass.
I can’t describe how delighted I am that she has signed-up to do the 2018 Brighton Marathon, I’m sure she’ll enjoy every step of gruelling 26.2 miles and I’m sure we’ll have a selfie at the end with our medals.
Every member of our group named the ‘Snodland Sprinters’ have been marvellous and a special thank you to John Murphy for arranging some great kit for us.
One mini project Steve and I are currently conducting is running every parkrun in Kent – if you’re local to any of these please give us a shout as we would welcome the opportunity to run with you.
Finally, I have some news……I’m extending my challenge. Both Steve Wolfe and I have decided to end on 471 days which means the finish line at the Brighton Marathon will close our challenge.
There are a few reasons for this:
- We were probably always going to go to at least 401 days to match the 401 days Ben Smith ran
- With Nicola and Diane injured, we felt we still wanted to be running when they return to complete their 366 challenge
- We still have to train for Brighton anyway
- New people are still contacting us to learn to run
- We love it……..
Cheers to everyone of you who has donated, sponsored, ran or spoken with/supported me over these months – without you I’d have probably struggled.
To sponsor us, click on the links below:
www.justgiving.com/fundraising/lee-allen13
www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Steve-Wolfe2