How the Miles Pile Up

This may seem a little obvious, but when you run 6 days a week, the miles pile up.

The web site that I use to keep my running log -- Running Ahead (which I highly recommend) -- automatically tallies my mileage not only for the week but also for the year and for all the time I've been recording my runs on the site. Now, I've never really been interested in my mileage beyond my weekly totals, but tonight, for whatever reason, I wondered what the number that represents my yearly tally means.

When you're on a road trip, logging miles is meaningful in terms of getting to your destination. But I've never thought of all the miles I run from day to day as accumulating in a meaningful way beyond simply providing base fitness.

But what if I stacked those runs end to end? Where would I end up?

First, to give me a sense of proportion, I mapped out how many kilometers it is from Dartmouth to Kingston, Ontario (where I grew up) -- it's 1,535km. This is a trip I've made many times by plane, train, and automobile, so I've got a feel for what it means to cross this much territory.

So where do my runs stack up?

Well, according to my Running Ahead log, I've done 1,890km so far this year. That puts me way past Kingston. In fact, if I were running across Canada, it would put me just north of Barrie. Have a look (you can click on it to make it bigger):


Pretty fun, eh?

This got me thinking: so how far is it from Dartmouth to Vancouver? 6,112km (according to Google maps).

Since I started recording my runs on Running Ahead on Sept. 21, 2009, I've logged 6,297km. This means that in a little over 1.5 years, I've run clear across Canada.

That's oddly motivating to me.

So for fun, I'm going to track my progress across Canada weekly and see how far I get this year. There's no way I'm going to go 6,000km this year, but I'm curious to see where I end up!

Any guesses??