Wow, I really can’t believe I am writing the November update. Part of me can’t believe we are already in December and the other half can’t believe I actually stuck with this challenge for so long! Trust me there were times when I really thought I was going to throw in the towel and call it a day. But here I am writing about how our 11th month has been completed and how with some sheer grit and determination, and hopefully a helping hand from the weather gods, my mum and I are set to finish the full 874 miles before the end of this year.
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Before I start on November it is probably worth pointing out that October was a nightmare. Neither my mum nor I ran very much at all, in fact we only covered 47 miles, due to us both, and then the kids, contracting Covid meaning isolation and illness put us behind where we wanted to be as we headed in to November.
So, as you can imagine November had to be ramped up ALOT! We ran a total of 108.5 miles which is more than double what we ran in October and trust me when I say we knew it. We ached, we stressed, we felt like we did nothing but run but we pushed and pushed and managed to cover a lot of ground. This made November a really successful month running wise, we completed an unplanned half marathon AND knocked 2 minutes of our PB as well as crossing the 800 mile mark which felt like a huge milestone in itself.
By finally getting our behinds in gear in November we now enter December with only (ha) 59 miles left to go and according to the End to End map we are now running along the A9 through Scotland.
59 miles sounds doable. It should be doable but the weather is horrific, we have a house move planned for the middle of the month and of course there is Christmas to consider too. But, despite the numerous excuses we could trot out now we are determined to go at it full throttle and try our damdest to finish this by 31st December 2021. But if we don’t we don’t, we can certainly hold our heads up high and say we gave it a bloody good go.
Running recommendations
In November I have used the new Ultimate Performance reflective hat and gloves set. So far it has been too hot for the gloves whilst running and I ended up taking them off half way through my run and carrying them but the hat is brilliant. Not only is the reflective material really handy for my evening runs but it keeps my head warm without me over heating and it stays in place where I was worried it might fall off. If you run in the dark I would highly recommend the hat and if you run in the freezing cold then maybe give the gloves a go too.
I haven’t used anything else new this month but I did create a Christmas gift guide specifically for runners so feel free to have a browse for all my ultimate running bits and bobs.
Read our last instalment to see if we managed to complete the end to end challenge in time.