How far did I run in 2025?

Having missed out on a Good for Age (GFA) place at the London marathon 2025 by just 17 seconds, I took the decision not to run a marathon in 2025. Instead, I decided to do lots of local races and just really enjoy my running.

January started off a bit slowly, as we went on a skiing holiday and I didn’t run for a whole week (unheard of!).

I ran an incredible (possibly excessive) 30 races in 2025. I took part in both the club’s road race and off-road race series, as well as the Gloucestershire AAA race series. A lot of the races were 10ks, which meant my overall mileage most months was lower than usual. I especially did a lot of races in May, so spent most of the month either resting before a race or recovering after one. I finally had a month without races in July!

Then I had a race every single weekend from the August bank holiday weekend (Pershore Plum 10k) through to the first weekend of November (Guy Fawkes 5). With four races, including two half marathons, in September, it felt like I was doing less running than ever. I’ve learned that running immediately before or after a race isn’t a good idea for me and just slows down recovery.

Then in October, I actually ran the least I’ve run in a month for as long as I can remember. In November, even though I still had three races, I moved into a pre-marathon phase. I worked hard to get my mileage and frequency of runs back to a good baseline, ready to start full-on marathon training after Christmas.

So how far did I run in 2025?

• In January, I ran 17 times and covered 85 miles (including the Linda Franks Race)
• In February, I ran 18 times and covered 91 miles (including Pittville Park cross country and Bourton 10k)
• In March, I ran 20 times and covered 127 miles (including new home parkrun PBs and Cleevewold hilly half marathon)
• In April, I ran 18 times and covered 99 miles (including the Magnificent Eastnor Castle 7 and Berkeley 10k)
• In May, I ran 15 times and covered 80 miles (including Great Birmingham Run half marathon, Bourton mile, Sherborne 5 Miler, Dymock half marathon and Stroud Beer Race)
• In June, I ran 18 times and covered 89 miles (including Cirencester 10k, Greystones 10k and Gloucester 10k)
• In July, I ran 21 times and covered 107 miles
• In August, I ran 18 times and covered 105 miles (including Standish Woodland Chase, Bugatti 10k, Pershore Plum 10k and Meteor Mile)
• In September, I ran 13 times and covered 73 miles (including Cranham Boundary Chase, Angels 10k, Cheltenham half marathon and Bourton half marathon)
• In October, I ran 12 times and covered 62 miles (including Apperley Quarter Marathon, Sharpness 4, Weston Super Half and Stroud half marathon)
• In November, I ran 21 times and covered 111 miles (including Guy Fawkes 5, Newent 9 and Croome Capability Canter)
• In December, I ran 21 times and covered 126 miles (including Bath cross country)

That is a total of 212 runs and 1,155 miles for 2025. It was 112 miles less than I ran last year and the least I’ve run since I started blogging about how far I’d run in 2019.  All being well, I’ll be back to the big miles next year.