The final stats are now in for my 2013 running year and, according to garmin connect, I ran a total of 2,448 miles over the year. My total ascent for the year was 484,365 feet which, to put it into perspective, is the equivalent of climbing Ben Nevis 110 times!
I continued my run every day 'regime' (although following on from one or two of my long expeditions I may have tested the exact meaning of the word 'run' to its absolute limit) and my average daily run was 6.70 miles with 1,327 feet of ascent.
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| Garmin Connect totals |
Further "interesting" stats as follows:
Total Mountains
In the UK the general definition of a mountain is a peak of at least 2,000 feet in height and, using that definition, I 'conquered' 227 peaks in 2,013. To be honest it all gets a bit subjective counting peaks, and gauging which peaks to include and which not too, but I used my own rule that if its not 2,000 feet it doesn't count. So, for example, that meant that I couldn't count two of the Bob Graham Round peaks, Steel Fell and Calf Crag (about 1,800 and 1,700 feet respectively), even though I went up both at least 5 times and with the climb up Steel Fell particularly being a humdinger. On the other hand I did include Watson's Dodd at 2,500 odd feet, even though its a pimple on the Helvellyn ridge line, largely because its one of the BGR peaks, but there again I excluded most/all of the crags and outcrops when running up any specific mountain (Heron Pike, Great Rigg or Hart Crag going around the Fairfield Horseshoe for example). And I didn't count crossing mountain passes that themselves are over 2,000 feet either and thus when me, Hester and Gavin crossed Windy Gap (about 2,500 feet) in atrocious conditions just trying to get back to our car, having bailed from a much longer expedition (all extremely epic), it doesn't even count!
My most climbed peaks unsurprisingly were all in the Dales with Pen y Ghent 'winning' the most climbed award with 13, closely followed by Ingleborough at 10 and Whernside at 9. Bowfell in the Lakes came in 4th at 6 with loads of others coming in with scores of 3, 4 and 5. Well done Pen y Ghent though for beating such fantastic competition. My favourite peak has to be Blencathra, which I went up just 4 times, and if I lived in the that neck of the woods I'd want to go up it every day.
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| Blencathra, winner of the prestigeous Stolly's peak of the year award |
Most visited Trig Point
The trig at Warrendale Knotts in the hills above Settle. By some comfortable margin too
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| Me posing for a selfie at the trig point on Warrendale Knotts in June |
Fell Races
2013 was a very poor year for fell races, it has to be said, with me running just two, both of which were in the North York Moors - the
Pinchinthorpe Plod in April and the
Commondale Beacon in November. Must. Try. Harder.
LDWA events
Only one this year, the
4 Lakeland Passes at the end of September.... which me and Harry won (haha, insert a big winky here).
Road Races
An even poorer year with a big fat zero road races. (Hurrah!)
Hill and Trail Ultra Races
Bob Graham Attempts
Grand Expeditions
Running Shoes
One of the (and possibly the only?) benefits of recording my runs on Strava is that I can log what shoes I wore for each run. My running shoe stats could well be the most exciting thing on this blog actually and, in order of distance, are as follows:
Inov8 Mudclaw 265's (2 pairs) -> 1,319 miles
Inov8 Mudclaw 300's (incredibly just 1 pair) -> 837 miles
Hoka One One's (not my best of purchases) -> 110 miles
Inov8 X Talon 212's (current) -> 69 miles
Walsh PB Extreme (on their last legs at the start of the year) -> 49 miles
Nike Pegasus trails shoes (a bit crap) -> 17 miles
Merrell walking 'sandals' (stood in when I left my proper running shoes at home) -> 14 miles
Barefoot (beach running) -> 10 miles
Inov8 Road X-233 (my current road running and evening wear shoe of choice) -> 5 miles
I absolutely love all of the Inov8's to death whilst, after my big toe pulverising experiences with the Hoka's on the Lakeland 100, let's just say I'm not so impressed with them. That said I wear my Hoka's all the time about town and while walking the dog......
And that was 2013, a fabulous running year, and coincidentally the first year of this blog. The blog itself has had some highs and lows and has morphed into a bit of a photo gallery nowadays but its generally got through okay (I think). Regardless of whether its any good or not (haha) its nice to see that, at the time of writing, there have been almost 37,000 page views of it. Is it me or the page viewers that most need to get a life?
2014 is looking good too and, so far, I've pencilled the London Marathon (huh?) and the Fellsman in for April, another anti-clockwise BGR attempt for May and the Lakeland 100 for July. I'm also holding out for a last minute place in March's High Peak Marathon and me, Harry and Hester ought really to polish off the southern half of the Cornish Coastal path too!
Bring it on!!
