1095miles – running blog

In September 2009, journalist James Ellis took a voluntary redundancy package from his role as deputy features editor and travel editor of Metro, the free morning commuter newspaper in London.

With a generous package in his pocket, he set off to start a new career as a freelance writer and editor and, to keep himself on track, decided to set himself a challenge: to run three miles a day, EVERY day for a year… that’s right, no days off.

With the year over, the challenge was then taken up by Andy Ratcliffe who did a stunning job from September 2010 onwards.

September 20, 2011 saw Andy manfully complete the challenge, racking up a massive 1,700 miles along the way. It was then that Helen McCarthy, Neil Cowburn and Irene Poon took up the challenge. The first two in Wales, Irene in Canada.

You can follow them thanks to some nifty technology from Garmin that tracks them via satellite and shows off a host of other flashy stuff like their heart rates. You can even ‘follow’ their progress via a little icon that runs around the map at the end of each link.

There is also an associated running club which meets on some Tuesday evenings in Hyde Park for a 3 mile trot… all ages and abilities welcome, it’s a social gathering, not a keep fit club – although being a bit fitter will be a happy by product…

Fancy taking up the challenge as well? Email us here for details how and we’ll get you a log in for the site