And so, the end is near

As the challenge draws to a close, time to reflect on a successful year of running:

• In March, my first half marathon, in Milton Keynes, in a very respectable time of 2:04:20;



• In May, comfortably my fastest 10k so far in the BUPA 10000 in London, finishing in 54:19;



• In September, a very enjoyable New Forest Half Marathon where I broke the 2 hours barrier, finishing in 1:59:37;



• and as a bonus, a new 10k PB of 53:30 in the UNICEF Hong Kong Disneyland 10k;



• added to which, with the help of my sponsors - thank you - I raised £335 for the Cure Parkinson's Trust.

At the time of writing I've reached a total of 819 miles for the year, comfortably beating my 750 mile target and my 601 mile total for last year.

I've run those miles at an average pace of 9:39 minutes per mile, faster than last year, and averaged nearly 5 miles per run, again more than last year's 3.6 miles per run.

Hopefully this all sets me up well for next year's marathon and 1000 mile challenge, which I'm running for Practical Action and CLIC Sargent.

Mission accomplished !

On Sunday November 28th at around 7:10 am in Hong Kong I completed 750 miles of running since the beginning of 2010. And I went on to complete the UNICEF Hong Kong Disneyworld 10k in 53 minutes 33 seconds, a personal best by around 40 seconds.

Prior to the race I'd built up my total with a few runs along the Kowloon harbourfront. Running there, while pleasant compared to the temperature in London in November, is also a challenge due to the humidity and pollution, so I'm glad I got some "acclimatisation" in ahead of the race.

The race itself was really well organised, with a separate start for "elites" and the masses, good marshalling and signage, and a nice course with a good mixture of terrain and some dramatic scenery.

I set off at a pretty steady pace but then speeded up somewhat unconsciously due to missing a couple of the kilometre markers, and so reached the halfway mark in 26:10, a little faster than planned. The second half of the course, although flat, was also slightly into the wind and as the sun came up the temperature rose quite quickly towards 23 degrees - together with the humidity and my early pace this took its toll and by the 9th kilometre I was struggling and had slowed to 10 minute/mile pace. However I managed to speed up a little to complete the final kilometre in 5:23 and crossed the line in 53:30, beating my time in the BUPA London 10000 by 41 seconds. Very happy with my performance.

All four of us who took part found the race conditions tougher than expected and were glad we hadn't signed up for anything longer !

So... I've achieved my target for the year. Time to celebrate my achievement - looking back only 3 years when I started running I could barely manage a mile without stopping - now I am comfortably running half marathons, and regularly exceeding 20 miles per week. Not bad for an old-timer !

With a month of the year still to go, I want to keep going and see by how much I can exceed the target. Much will depend on the weather over the next few weeks - currently there's heavy snow cover and low temperatures which makes running more difficult. I also need to keep my mileage ticking over prior to starting my marathon training just before Christmas, so will need to find a way to start fitting in at least four runs per week - at the moment I am just about managing three, sometimes only two, per week.

A lunchtime run to Dulwich and back today in the snow and frost added just over 6 miles to my total which now stands at 764.78 miles.