It might seem odd to be talking about "approaching the finish line" when I still have 115 miles to run. But in a 1000 mile "race" it's the equivalent of passing the "3 miles to go" sign in a marathon. Which makes it seem a lot closer. Although fortunately I don't feel as knackered as I did when I reached the "3 miles to go" sign in an actual marathon back in April.
And at the current rate of progress my "challengeometer" says I should complete 1000 miles by 14th December. Which would be good since I don't really want to be out clocking up miles over the Christmas holidays. After 1000 miles and a year's worth of denial (not much alcohol, not many late nights, not much lardy food) it will be nice to just relax and put my feet up for a while. Also, if last winter is any guide, we might have a cold, snowy snap before Christmas, and while it's possible to run in the snow, and I did plenty of it last year, I'd rather not.
Actually I'm quite enjoying running without a training plan, now that I don't have any more races planned. No tempo runs, no intervals, no race pace runs, just gentle jogging and plenty of scope to enjoy the scenery. My four laps around Greenwich today were a real pleasure in fact - a cool cloudy day, a nice empty park (seemed like most folks were at home or preparing for Bonfire night) and, now that the trees in the park have lost most of their leaves, great, open views.
It was also a day of polite, friendly, people holding gates open for me - a spate of them in fact, including one other runner who waited quite a while for me to reach the gate, and an older couple who said to each other "hold on, we should let the athlete through". Not sure who they were referring to, perhaps someone behind me :-)
Tomorrow it'll be off to Dulwich Park for a few more laps.
Earlier in the week I completed my 150th run and my total for the year now stands at 885 miles. Not far now. Just the equivalent of running from my house to Bath. Fortunately not without stopping.
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