Yesterday I prefaced a milestone I would be reaching today. I have now achieved this milestone. On my very short run this morning I reached 4,000 consecutive days of running without a day off. During this time I have covered 72,099 km, or an average of more than 18 km per day. On the 24th of this month it will be eleven years since I’ve had a day off from running. For the record, I have been logging my running mileage since Feb 14, 1983. In that time (11,863 days) I have run a total 135,040 km, or an average of 11.38 km per day.

It’s nice to reach this milestone, but my immediate focus is the City to Surf, now less than 24 hours away. Tune in tomorrow to see how I go.

For today’s photo I’ve gone back to the very early days of the world run, near Queenstown in New Zealand. The region abounds with gorges like this one, some of which host bungee jumping.

On this Day

Aug 8, 2013

Distance today = 54.00 km; Total distance = 24,457.04 km; Location = Cannawigara, SA – 36 15.199’ S, 140 40.459′ E; Start time = 0814, Finish time = 1615

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/355307275

The weather was much kinder to me today, with no rain or wind.

After 18 km, I reached a sign indicating it was 2 km to Keith and 500 km to Melbourne. The significance of this is that I took a photo of the same sign in 2010 as I passed it on the Tour de Bois. I clearly remember thinking at the time that I would be passing that same sign in a few years, having run most of the way around the world. That moment arrived today. It almost felt like I had seen the future.

Other than that, the day was fairly uneventful – just a solid 54 km.

N.B. The official distance of 54 km today, differs from the Garmin data by more than 800 metres. For some time now, I have suspected the Garmin device has been short-changing me in regard to the distance I’ve covered on some days. It’s often difficult to be sure of this, so I accept the data as is. However, on certain occasions, like today, it’s easy to check. Running entirely on the same highway, from the 108 km peg to the 162 km peg, I was able to compare the data with three other types of distance markers – the kilometre pegs (each km), distance to town markers (each 5 km), and Google Maps. All three of these were consistent with each other today, but the Garmin differed by the amount mentioned above. When it is so conclusive, I feel it’s important to adjust the total.

Assuming the Garmin has, from time to time, been registering less than what I’ve really run, what implications does this have? Luckily, not much – it simply means I will probably end up running a bit more than what my official total says. At least my official total will be a lower bound – I know I will have run at least that much, and probably more. If it was the other way around, it would be a serious problem, as I couldn’t then be sure I’d run the required distance of at least 26,000 km.

There have been times when the Garmin has attributed me with more than I have really run, but these occasions have been very rare, extreme in their error, easy to spot, and simple to correct. For example, like the time it added 1,360 km to my distance for that day – it’s not likely I’d ever miss something like that.

PS Thanks to David from Duke’s Motel in Bordertown for his generosity tonight.