Nowhere to hide, everywhere to run

Formalities have been formalised, preparations prepared, and a statement of intent has been intentionally stated...

There remains a few days of December in which I can still be slovenly if I choose, as from this Saturday, I will be attempting to jog, log and blog every day in January as a participant in the 2011 Janathon.

The premise is simple: run every day, record each run on a public website, write a blog.

Of course, within this simplicity lies the challenge. I've never run every day for a week, let alone a month. Those that know me as a runner may find this amusing, yet whilst I rely upon my running for many things, I rarely run more than twice a week, and frequently abstain for weeks at a time if I just don't feel like it, or if I lazily allow myself to be bullied by a sporadic work schedule.

The blogging element should be equally testing. Having taken the plunge, and set up the blog, I can see myself applying my endurance-running mantras to the blogging process: "Start as you mean to finish"; "If in doubt, blog"; "Blog easy" etc, and already I'm doing a couple of trial blogs (such as this one) to make sure everything works.

So this should be interesting. Although I'm focusing on the goal, it's the journey that most intrigues me. For a long time, I've been considering whether my running (let alone other areas of life) would be improved from some kind of daily regimen, so this might help to provide an answer - even if that answer is "not really".

I appreciate that this is essentially a selfish endeavour, even though it's being selfishly shared by over a hundred other Janathon participants, but I'll try to make it as unselfish as possible, and in doing so, aim to complete the challenge in good form. I'll try to include some photographs (in the dark I suspect), and attempt to mix up the locations and routes as best I can. I'll also be trying to keep an eye on some of my fellow participants, and will include any links to some good stuff that they produce.

My final "pre-Janathon" run is in the diary for tomorrow, and in company, so there's no weedling out of it. Just as well really, as with all this jogging, logging and blogging on the cards, any more weedling is going to have to wait until February.

GV running in Northumberland, December 2010 (photo by Gary Tompsett)