It started on 19 May 2014 as a commitment to health, made to myself and to my family. There was no twelve-year plan. There was one rule: run today.
Running had become part of a much larger change in my life. I had lost 70 kilograms, and the daily run gave that change a clear, repeatable shape. The early runs mattered because they were done, not because they were fast, long or remarkable.
One day accumulated into a week, then a month, then years. The streak was never a single heroic effort. It was a long record of ordinary days kept in sequence.
06
The injury and the ending
The streak ended through two falls, several days apart, and a hamstring that had already been compromised.
During a run, I clipped a raised road reflector, tripped, folded forward and overstrided. We believe that first fall tore one of the proximal hamstring tendons away from the bone. I continued the streak, not yet knowing the full extent of the damage.
Several days later, on Thursday 9 July, I completed my daily run. Later that day I had an ordinary slip and fall—not while running. With the hamstring already damaged, the second tendon did not have a chance. It tore away from the bone. The injury was diagnosed as a complete proximal hamstring avulsion, and urgent surgery followed.
