2021, 50th birthday, 1 country, many km...

In 2021 I ran 3’152 kilometres/1’959miles (268km more than 2020 record year)… Which is equivalent to :

• 7’880 stadium loops, 
• 74.7 marathons, in 52 weeks…
• 262.6 km/month
• 211 runs
• 14.95km per run on average
• 302 hours and 54 minutes, which is 12.6 days, or 12 days and nights, 14 hours, and 24 minutes, moving in running shoes
• Average speed 5'46/km – 10.4km/h, but it was not flat
• Positive vertical elevation of almost 47’593m (I only count when there is at least 100m of elevation), that is like to climb 10 times to the top of Mont Blanc, or 148 times to the top of the Eiffel Tower…
• Longest run : 50.6km, solo, on my 50th birthday day (read the story of that very special day here)
• Highest elevation : 1698m, during the 30km 11th stage of the Swiss.crossing, including running to the top of the Moleson mountain, alt. 2’002m (read the story of that day here).
• And with all that, let’s add 2’226km/28’085m elevation riding my bike…
• That is a total of 285 activities (running + biking).

312’941 calories burned while running (approximately, and according to Garmin, a calculation I don’t trust at all but which makes me laugh), which represents: either 626 chocolate bars (500cal/100g), or 62.6 kg, or 782 liters of beer (40cal per dl), or 1’564 cans of lager (I promise Mum, I drank a few less… I guess), or 391 kg pasta, that is almost 1,955 plates of spaghetti and tomato, without cheese (80/100g), or 160 per plate of 200g of cooked pasta and therefore 5.3 plates of pasta per day…

And this is the equivalent of running, for example, to connect a lot of places where there are urbirun routes, for example:

• From Seville to Copenhagen…
  
• From Paris (new tour) to Helsinki, via Berlin, Vilnius and St Petersburg
  
• From Lisbon to Budapest
  
• From Chicago to Los Angeles
  
• From Miami to Quebec
  
• In short, from my home to Lisbon (3'119km), but via Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Brussels, Paris, Bordeaux, Bilbao, and Porto, for example…
  

More than 3'100km, yes, that’s a lot (plus almost 2'500km(+28'000m) biking)… 

And I dedicate each of these kilometres once again to the nursing staff locked in another year of hell and exhaustion, to them who are no longer applauded and now despised, by the ones not caring about social distancing and other protection gestures, by the ones wearing their masks under their chins as a boastful rebellion sign rather than as a tool to protect the other ones, and  by the ones continuing to ignore science, selfishly delaying our normal life back for all… So I dedicate these km to them, in white, in green, in blue, who surely don’t have the strength or the time to put on their running shoes to get rid of their fatigue, their anger and their frustration…

Because I, I had the privilege and the chance to run… I even did on my 50th birthday, running 50km on my own, with a magnificent surprise at the marathon mark.

Then it was the preparation, planning and organisation of the crossing of Switzerland… Wow, what an experience, what an adventure and what happiness to run across the whole country, 370km from lake to lake. It was magic. And I learned that you should never be afraid to dream big, even too big, because the realization of this dream makes you grow, and you’ll see that in the end, this too big dream will perfectly fit you…

Then I took a vaccine: now I run super fast, and farther, do it (this totally unproven propaganda message is to be repeated everywhere, please), and moreover this will have protected me from symptom a few months later, even allowing me to run in secret alone in the forest during my autumn isolation quarantine. A few summer runs in Italy (new tour in Verona coming soon, and updated tour in Florence), the Geneva Lake tour relay race during the Runmate with 7 amazing mates, and the chance to fly to Miami (tour updated) again, running under the palm trees,in the sand, in the rosy colours of the rising sun, and where I crossed the 20'000th running kilometer mark, since I started logging my runs (from 2012). 20'000km… half around the planet… who would have thought…

I didn’t complete all the 21 sporting challenges I had set for 2021, but most of them, including the 3'000km, the 50 half-marathons, those unique 50th birthday 50km run, and the most beautiful of all, the magical Swiss Crossing adventure…

What’s next? Find new goals to keep motivated… for example :

• go for a PR on the Miami half-marathon in February (as long as we can travel?)
• a new running “trip” across the country, from the northernmost point to the southernmost, or do you have another suggestion?
• finally do some strength training to keep the bodywork in good working order (as the engine seems to be ok)?
• keep on running, to reach 40'000km some day? and be able to say to myself that I could have gone all around the planet?

I don’t know what this 15th year of running is going to be… but I know I’m going to run… run some more, to be there and to get away, to leave and to come back, for pleasure and to suffer, to run to feel alive, to stay alive…

Run.

Happy 2022 to all! Take care !