I started the year well, on target for 6,000km but I “sensibly” chose 5,000km instead. Good job I did because my eagerness to improve my running saw the occasional “overuse” issue that caused me to back off on my running, especially during the middle of the year.

By the time of October, I feared that I was too far behind to catch up but I wasn’t ready to give up just yet. I did ponder reducing my target to 3,000 miles just in case.

After the Spring/Summer lull in which a couple of months were just 225km and 239km, I attacked October as best as I could and just hit the month’s target with 505km. In November, I went one better. It might have been a day short, but it turned into a monthly distance PB for me of 566km / 351 miles.

Towards the end of November, that old “overuse” issue came back at me – this time not my ankle that caused me to back off mid-year, but a calf/knee niggle. I expected December to be a write-off but, oddly, the leg didn’t have any problem with distance runs – only with the faster pace. So I kept plugging away at a slower pace and ended up hitting my 5,000km target a couple of days early in the end.

2019 total: 5,071 km / 3,151 miles. It surprised me more than anyone else, I think.

The Christmas indulgence means I’ve not had a rest day since 20th December and have covered 256km since that rest day.

Needless to say, my “overused” leg didn’t really appreciate the full 20-miles double-parkrun today but, that said, if I can do 20 miles on an overused leg that hasn’t rested in 12 days when I started exhausted due to lack of sleep, then I’ve got to be looking at my second marathon in 2020 haven’t I? Without the exhaustion, the overuse issue, and with a rest day or two, I could probably cover a pretty dangerous distance.

I won’t be doing a distance challenge for 2020 because I want to refocus on doing longer distance single runs, which will require more rest days. I may end up beating 2019’s distance as a consequence, but I don’t want it to be my goal because it will prove too distracting. Good luck to all those who set themselves a challenge.

Hitting my 5,000th km of the year at Dartford parkrun