What I Discovered While Running Every Day for 4 Years

In 2015 I had surgery to repair a ruptured Achilles tendon. I couldn’t run for 12 months.

Today marks 4 years of #runeveryday. Here are some stats:

• 1,461 days.
• Total running streak mileage: 16,339 km
• Average per month: 340 km
• Average per week: 78 km
• Average per day: 11 km
• Average speed: 5.47 / km

My shortest run was 1.62 km the day after I twisted my ankle from standing in a pothole. My longest run was 71 km in a Backyard Ultra.

In 2016 I sat with a group of men and committed to getting fit again. It started with running my first parkrun in December 2016. I ran 5 km in 29 minutes.

Here are 10 insights that I discovered on my #runeveryday journey:

• The hardest thing is starting.
• Running with friends makes it so much easier.
• Running in the morning scores an early win on your daily scorecard.
• Being fit is the most incredible feeling; it is as close as I can imagine to being bulletproof.
• Keeping a daily record is an opportunity to get a second dose of dopamine.
• Runners will always tell you how bad their training is going and then go and run their fastest time.
• Consistency is a superpower that produces incredible Returns on Effort (ROE).
• There is never a good enough excuse not to run a mile (1.62 km).
• The story you make up about how hard it might be is never true.
• It is okay not to be training for anything other than training for life.

I can now run a 5 km parkrun in 21 minutes. A 27% improvement seems reasonable. I’ll take it.

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