Congratulations To ?

I've been reading with interest Jackie F's counting up to a total of 100,000 running kilometres over her running career; a milestone which she reached last weekend. That's an interesting statistic and a wonderful achievement. What has been just as interesting is the discussion and comparing of statistics that has followed from less high profile runners than Jackie who have equalled or surpassed her total kilometres over their running careers. Like lots of other people I add my running kilometres up at the end of each calendar year but I haven't bothered to add the totals of my 27+ years of running up to reach a total year to date figure. I'm sure that if I did it would be around the total Jackie and others have reached, and I'm also sure that many of my lifelong running friends would have similarly impressive career totals. My point is that lots of us run lots of kilometres for years on end and so our cummulative kilometre totals are similar to or greater than Jackie's and worth similar congratulations. So, to all the life long runners who run because they love it, and who have logged ~100,000kms (or more?) along the way, "congratulations". Of course for most of us, Jackie included, it's not really about the adding up of kilometres. It's about running because we love it, and while we are doing what we love doing, the kilometres add themselves up. "Run on" I say, and don't bother getting too preoccupied with the maths.