Dundee lecturer completes 1000th consecutive daily run
Published On Wed 27 Sep 2017 by Cara Longmuir
A University of Dundee lecturer is celebrating, and resting, after completing his 1000th consecutive daily run.
Dr David Rodley, from the School of Science and Engineering, set out on January 1st 2015 to start his quest to complete a whole year of daily runs, the only self-imposed stipulation being that each run should be at least two miles long.
Having successfully achieved that goal, the 61-year-old simply kept running, until last night’s 1000th run, celebrated with fellow runners from the Dundee Road Runners club with food and drink in the Westport Bar.
David said, “I was quite a serious runner for many years, but when my daughter started swimming, that took over and I became a poolside dad. I ended up enjoying sitting by the pool, watching her swim, while eating a packed of wine gums and having a cappuccino.
“Then the weight started to go on, so the initial year of my running challenge was my way of trying to force myself out of the door every day. It wasn’t a question of ‘Am I going for a run?’ it was ‘when am I going for a run?”
After that first year David just kept running, and running and running. “Even when I’m knackered or the weather’s really horrible, I’ve managed to make it. You always feel better for it.” said David.
He even managed to fit in a 1:30am run, before having to take a minibus full of students over to the west coast to catch a 2:30am ferry. “Apart from running on the ferry itself, there was no other way I was able to fit in a run that day.” said David.
Despite this being David’s 1000th run, he is showing no signs of stopping. He has just completed his fourth Loch Ness marathon and will be doing the London Marathon for the first time in April. He said, “My family might have a different view about me carrying on with the streak as they have had to put up with some fairly stubborn behaviour already, but they have still been incredibly supportive.”
Altogether, David’s 1000 days involved running over 6000 miles and running up the equivalent of Mount Everest 12 times.
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