1000 City Miles, 2017. Done!

Finally, I’ve finished – the last few miles on the last day of the year, and it feels great to have completed my 12 month goal: to run 1000 miles around the City of Edinburgh, Scotland.

My first run, on January 1st 2017, was a slow 6 miles down the Almond River and along Cramond prom.  I did the same run yesterday (although a bit quicker – I’m still a plodder but my pace has improved over the year). As for covering as many of the streets, roads and paths of Edinburgh as I could, I discovered parts of this amazing city I would never have found and a new appreciation for places I’d taken for granted.

Oh, and a real sense of just how hilly it is!

High points?

• Doing the 4 castles run in April (Craigmillar, Edinburgh, Holyrood and Lauriston) - a 12 mile run from the south east to the north west of the city
• Improving my time in the Edinburgh half marathon at the end of May
• Doing a crazy 50 miles in 5 days in September to get back on track
• A couple of runs on the West Beach at St Andrews (ok – not the city but still wonderful)

The only real low-point came early on, falling way behind on my weekly target of 20 miles through and accumulation of illness, injury and general lack of motivation. However, with support from others and a bit of self-challenge, I got back into it.

A Coaching Analogy

This goal of mine is a good analogy of the coaching process; setting an overarching outcome, having a series of smaller goals to keep the momentum going and dealing with the set-backs. It tapped into self-belief, commitment and motivation, the fuel that drives success and achievement, whatever the goal might be. 

As someone who also believes in the benefits of mindfulness, the hours I’ve spent running have given me a great opportunity to be in the moment, to notice the places I was in, how my body was reacting and how my thinking (both positive and negative) impacted on my progress. And it gave me the opportunity to practice acceptance, one of the key concepts of mindfulness. This included accepting the aches and pains as well as the elation that comes with running.

Now I'm keen to give back...

If you have a goal you want to achieve in 2018, get in touch with us at Acorn Principle. We offer individual coaching, group or organisational coaching, online courses, coach training and mindfulness courses, all of which can help move you from where you are to where you want to be.

I hope you all have a fantastic 2018, whatever goals you want to achieve - all the best,

Raymy Boyle

Mindfulness Teacher & Leadership Coach