Day: 100
Time: 61 Minutes
Distance: 8.2 KM
Calories: 920

100 DAYS! I am 100 days into my run! WOW.... Who would have thought I'd have lasted that long. 
So on this milestone, I took my total count to over 600km, which is 1/5th the total distance. Obviously the main problem is I am almost a 1/3rd almost through my run. But anyways, lets not dwell on that, there is still a long way to go. So lets look at some of the stats so far...

(BTW I write this as a country music singer is filming his music video outside my office window).

So in 100 days I have run a total of 69 days. I probably should be around the mid 80's. I've had to take a few days off here or there due to illness and health problems but seriously, 69 runs is pretty huge!

But what does 69 runs equate to? Well I have spent 4546 minutes running, which is around 75-78 hours. I have burnt 68 807 calories! Jeez thats a lot. To put it into perspective, that's about 208.5 Macdonalds cheeseburgers... So I have burnt off the equivalent of eating 2 burgers a day. Oh man those burgers would go down so well right now.

So my average runs are interesting. On average I have run 8.8km each run, in around 65 minutes. So that's about 8km/h or so and during that run I burn basically a 1000 calories. 

Health wise, which is the primary goal of this run(apart from charity), things are a million times better. I have lost weight, probably somewhere between 5-6kg (11-13 pounds). It's not as much as I have hoped, but over the last several weeks or so, I have lost around .5-1kg a week, and I am only 2kg away now from my first major weight goal. But apart from losing some fat, I have put on a stack of muscle and really toned my body. The last day or two especially, people such as my girlfriend and mother have both seen me in somewhat tighter clothing and commented on how I look a lot slimmer. Now they aren't the most impartial judges, but I see the differences too. When I last measured myself two weeks ago, I had lost a total of 13cm (5 inches), which breaks down to 14cm (5.5 inches) off my torso and gaining one cm around my legs. I think I have probably dropped a cm or two more since then. 

It's these stats that show you whats going on with my body. When I measured myself several weeks after starting, I had lost several centimeters off my thigh, only to have put them all back on. So whats happened is, I lost fat off my legs, then slowly replaced it with muscle. On my torso, which doesn't work as hard during the run, I have just lost fat and not really replaced it with muscles.I think apart from eating healthier the last few weeks, I have probably reached the height of how big and strong my leg muscles will get- as such I am probably not putting on muscle any more and instead simply losing fat(thus the weight loss has finally kicked in)

The greatest fact is this- I am now the fittest and lightest I've been in probably 3 or 4 years. Fingers crossed it keeps going.

I am a million times fitter than I used to be. I never imagined myself as a runner, but now, when I am out on the streets, I love it. My legs feel so strong and ultimately, I feel happier and healthier than I have in years. 

So 100 days down, I am very happy. I am questioning if I will be able to make 3000km in the allotted time, but I never imagined 100 days ago that i'd be enthused to run a marathon, yet on the weekend, I basically ran a half marathon just for kicks, and I am going to do it again this weekend. I also have 2 marathons on my calender to run this year...

This whole run has changed my life. Just remember though, if you like reading this blog, or you are inspired by something so simple, do 2 things for me.
1) Let me know as I love hearing stories of people getting healthier!
2) Donate some money to some worthwhile cancer research companies. Remember, raising money for them is a massive goal of my run and every dollar counts. So donate a few bucks if you can!

Day: 78
Time: 61 Minutes
Distance: 8.2 KM
Calories: 890
Two days ago marked a big milestone for me. It was 2 months until I am expected to hand in my PhD. Yep, in a fraction under 2 months, I am expected to hand in 100 000 words, several hundred images, a bibliography of hundreds and a catalogue of objects that takes up some 500 000 words.

For the last four years of my life this has been what I have been working up to, and it’s scary. 4 YEARS of blood, sweat and tears(well no tears as I am a manly man.. sniff) and on March 21st I will walk into the arts office, drop off a box of recently bound documents and then walk away. It’s a process that takes all of 5 minutes and it is a rather unceremonious way of saying goodbye to a major part of your life.

The PhD isn’t over at that point though, as you then wait several months to see if your three markers like it and you are likely to get them back and then need to fix up a bunch of corrections they point out. Only then can you finally submit your thesis to the University and then graduate as a Doctor! 

For those of you who don’t know, which is likely most of you, I am completing a PhD in Classical Greek archaeology, and I am focusing on the imagery of death!

Well actually, my title is something along the lines of ‘The role of Gestures in Greek Funerary Iconography from the Mycenaean to Late Classical Periods’. I look at the gestures of people on funerary objects(such as the pictures in this post) such as gravestones or pots, and use those gestures to understand more about the process of burying someone but also using them as identifiers of status, age etc etc.

It’s boring! It’s very boring! Well it is for me, because I have been writing it for the last 4 years. The main question is- will I get this thing done in time? Will it be any good? What will the markers say and will they accept it?

But in the meantime I will bust  my ass for the next two months to get it done. It’s funny, I haven’t been nervous about the whole thing until two days ago when I realised how little time is left.

That’s what gets me onto running. There are few things in this world which make me turn off my brain or can so completely overwhelm it that I don’t think about stressful things. The first is trout fishing. I love trout fishing… wading through rivers and flicking a lure into lovely streams whilst my best mate is just 10m away doing the same, well that is one thing that de-stresses me like crazy. The other is running. Well, running outside. The more I do it, the more I realise how much I like it. The wind in your face, the focus on where you are running, the speed, time etc. I find my mind only concentrates on the run and nothing else. It is different than running at the gym where your body just runs on the spot and you don’t need to worry about anything. Here- in the country- with the fresh air and lovely sounds, my mind seems to stay focused on the task and just the task of running. It makes me realise that running will be very important to me over the next few months- I will need it, if only to stop my mind thinking of my PhD CONTINOUSLY for the next two months.

I was looking forward to my walk/run(more walk than run today as I appear to have caught the flu), and it was stunning. I enjoyed every minute of my walk/run and by the time I got to 5km I was running quickly simply as I felt so good. The flu slowly disappeared and I felt the best I have in 24 hours. Now- not so much... mainly as I am staring at books about a bunch of dead Greeks.