Marcothon

Marcothon is an annual running event held in December each year. It began in 2009 when a Scottish runner, Marco Consani, challenged himself to run every day in November. His wife, Debbie, decided to follow this by running every day in December, and to pay tribute to her husband's idea, she called it Marcothon. She posted it on her blog and she attracted other runners willing to take part.

Now in it's 4th year it's a staple of the winter running scene in Scotland and beyond. It's easy to keep up with everyone's progress either via the website,  a Facebook group, or an account on Twitter.

The rules are pretty basic. You must run a minimum of three miles or 25 minutes - whichever comes first, every day in December. There are no prizes, just a personal challenge to get up and run every day for a month.

I decided to take part this year after seeing a club mate, Mike Newton, do it last year. He got a real boost from it personally and he managed to run 170 miles in the month. That's more mileage than I've ever managed to do in a single month so I thought it would be of benefit to me as I attempt to run some longer ultras in 2013 and also to inspire me to get out for a run on those days where I normally wouldn't feel up to it.

UPDATE: I managed to run for 16 days in a row before I had to stop due to injury. I ran 97 miles in that time. I really enjoyed it but I was pretty worn out by the time I stopped on Day 16.

I'd never run more than 7 days in a row before so it was a good achievement even if I didn't complete the whole event.