So, in the strangest of times we are living through this pandemic like everyone else I was looking for a challenge that would keep me fit and motivated over a long period of time!

Virtual Challenge

I had already completed a virtual challenge of walking 100 km in a few months over the summer of 2020 for a local hospice charity that was great, but I needed something more, so to my joy I saw a Facebook post inviting me to complete a virtual challenge of run/walking between Lands End to John O’ Groats (LEJOG) 874 miles.

This challenge is run by End to End formed by husband & wife team of Tori & Nathan that decide with the UK locking down in March 2020 they wanted to keep people motivated via virtual challenges.

So in May 2020 they came up with their first challenge LEJOG and the rest is history.

You can read their full story here

Virtual challenge rules

• Have up to one year to complete this challenge from the start date of your LEJOG group (in my case it was group 4 with a start date of 17th August 2020)
• You can either run or walk or both on this challenge
• Upload daily combined total miles completed data up to a interactive virtual map page

Benefits

• See where you are on your virtual LEJOG map
• Milestone post cards given along the route
• Medal & T-shirt given out to everyone who completes they challenge ( I decided to donate planting a tree as a different option to the T-shirt)
• Brilliant supportive Facebook community

Have Fun

It would have been so easy just walk or run repeatably the same routes, but for me I needed to make my journey fun, and this included:

Synchronised Not parkrun

With a friend, I was in Stopsley, Luton and he was in Harlington, Bedfordshire. We both started at 10am, run a 5km local not parkrun course of our choosing and took pictures along the way as proof.

Finally, we had a good chinwag at the end of our adventure and shared our routes together via Strava 🙂

Strava Art

Always a bit of fun trying to draw GPS line drawing of say an animal on your run/walk! Think on this 5km I may have managed to draw a dragon 🙂

Beautiful Countryside

I am so lucky to have some beautiful countryside to walk/run in the form of the Chiltern hills and surrounding public footpaths of South Bedfordshire, I feel truly blessed 🙂

Final day

So where was I going to run the final 5km of my LEJOG challenge? Simple run my local parkrun of Luton, Wardown with my very good friend Martin of course!

It was great to finish at a parkrun event that is very close to my heart and is one of the loveliest communities you could ever wish to meet, I could be biased, but I don’t care 🙂

Be very rude not to after my final 5KM run we had to have a go at our parks new 18 hole mini golf course 🙂

Personal Stats

• Average daily mileage 2.93
• Not parkruns 114
• Longest single distance 10.37 miles
• Day’s to complete 298 from 17th August 2020 – 10th June 2021

Conclusion

Thank you Tori & Nathan from the bottom of my heart for this much needed challenge that has been a massive boost to my mental & physical wellbeing over the last 10 months 🙂

Good luck to everyone on their current virtual challenges and for me I will be trying to complete 1000 miles in total by the end of my year long LEJOG and in doing so personally donate £100 to my favourite local charity!

Finally, I have only gone and done it just sign up to their 630 miles South West Coast Path challenge 🙂

Happy virtual run/walking everyone,

Best Mark aka Silent Runner

Update 16-08-2021

On the final day of this challenge I have completed a grand total of 1,144.71 miles and will be donating a good personal sum of money to a couple of charities that are close to my heart!

Dedication

I am dedicating this challenge in the memory of my Uncle Dermott who sadly passed away on the 1st August this year.

RIP Uncle Dermott