Gabe’s running challenge

Gabe is our middle son. He is 12.  He had never been a runner. In 2018 year he decided to run every day during December. The target was to run at least a mile, every day, no matter what.  And he did it. Brilliantly.

To add to that achievement, he was inspired to continue. He set himself a 2019 target of running the equivalent mileage of his dad’s combined marathon total from 2016.  Matt ran 12 marathons that year.  So Gabe has committed to running 314.4 miles this year. That’s a sustained 6 miles a week. For 52 weeks.

This was a tricky ask. There were weeks when he flew through the miles and he would reach the third week of the month with a marathon in the bank and many days to spare.  But he couldn’t carry over miles into the next month and it only took a few days of not running to bring Gabe to a stand still. Getting him out of the door was tricky. And in the end, this had to be his doing.

There were times when he would be but a few days away from the month end, still with the majority of his 26.2 miles to go.  In the Winter months, there were times when he ran in the dark and the rain for 10km at a time, after school, just to ensure he earned the pounds that were being generously donated in his name.  Although we encouraged him, it was always down to Gabe to get out and hit the fields and lanes.  And he did it!

 

A marathon distance every month, for twelve months, every step of it running.  We are properly proud of this lad!

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