How far did I run in 2022?

I started training for Manchester marathon in December 2021, which meant that January 2022 was the first time I’d trained for a marathon for an entire January. So it was the furthest I’d ever run in January! It was also the furthest I’d ever run in February, as February normally falls earlier in the training cycle. I struggled to recover from the marathon, so my mileage for April was pretty low.

Then I was hit by Covid and I struggled to recover from that, so my mileage was pretty low in June and July too.

My running was hit by a quadruple whammy in December of my daughter being ill, me being ill, my daughter being in panto (therefore me having to give her lifts when I’m usually running) and the longest period of extremely cold weather we’ve had for years (so the paths were too icy to run on).

I didn’t feel like I ran that many races in 2022. But with three half marathons and a marathon, I think it was the second highest number of races I’ve run in a year – after 2019, when I ran a marathon and five half marathons.

Every year since I’ve been tracking my mileage, I’ve run a bit further than the previous year. At some point that had to change. And 2022 was that point.

So how far did I run in 2022?

• In January I ran 22 times and covered 137 miles
• In February I ran 19 times and covered 148 miles
• In March I ran 20 times and covered 137 miles
• In April I ran 14 times and covered 87 miles (including Manchester marathon)
• In May I ran 17 times and covered 101 miles (including Tewkesbury half marathon)
• In June I ran 15 times and covered 64 miles (I had Covid!)
• In July I ran 15 times and covered 79 miles
• In August I ran 17 times and covered 99 miles
• In September I ran 16 times and covered 85 miles (including Cheltenham half marathon)
• In October I ran 18 times and covered 106 miles (including Stroud half marathon)
• In November I ran 18 times and covered 100 miles
• In December I ran 12 times and covered 56 miles

That is a total of 203 runs and 1199 miles for 2022. It is a lot further than I ran in 2018 and only 14 miles short of what I ran in 2019.

One of the main reasons for me not running as far in 2022 was that we had no lockdowns, unlike 2020 and 2021. For me, lockdowns meant less pressures and responsibilities, therefore it was easy to run five times a week. While I still generally run five times a week, it does sometimes become four times a week because of other responsibilities. The longer recovery from both the marathon and Covid also had an effect too.

But I’m not beating myself up over that. It’s not possible to keep running further and further every year if you have a family and a job. I’m just pleased that I am still running regularly after all these years. And I plan to keep running regularly for many more years to come.