December 26, 2011

Quest for 1000 miles

A year ago, I sat at a New Years gathering amongst friends where we went around the table and wrote down what we hoped to accomplish in 2011; for me, it was simple. Log 1000 miles!

Seemed simple. Easy to write. Easier to say. But how easy was it to do? The math seemed simple. 83.33 miles per month. Or 19.2 miles per week. Or 2.74 miles per day. Again, seems simple. But when I found myself at the halfway mark of 500 at the end of July , I was a full month behind.

Time for new math on the remaining 500 in just 5 months. 100 miles per month. or 22.7 miles per week Or 3.3 miles per day. Hmmm. Still possible. Sure, why not. Afterall, I'm entering marathon season!

With 2 months left though, I was even further behind and found myself needing OVER 100 miles for each of the last two months! Even with running a marathon the first weekend in November, I needed to rest and recover before I could crank the miles back up, and by the time we hit December, I still had nearly 104 to go!

No way I was letting this slip me by. The only thing that could stop me was illness or injury, and even then, good luck stopping me!

This morning with many of my best running buddies, I hit 1000+ and I did it with a new 4 mile PR!

So, How far is 1000 miles?
  • New York City to Tampa, Florida
  • Warsaw, Poland to Athens, Greece
  • From the northern tip of the Philippines to the southern most point
  • The full length of Madagascar
  • Across New Zealand
  • Most of the way across India
Finally, I figured out that from my home, I could run 1000 miles and reach:
  • Orlando, FL
  • Dallas, TX
  • Quebec, QC Canada
Anyways, it feels pretty cool to be able to say that I've run 1000 miles this year. I never thought I'd ever be counting in the first place. So, now what do I do?