Seven Miles in 1hour 2 mins and 43 seconds.
30 miles this week , 95 miles this month , 771 miles this year and 13,053 miles in a lifetime.
When I look at the distance I have run in a lifetime 13,000 miles doesn't seem an awful lot. After all 13,000 miles is the distance covered by leatherback turtles in one migration non stop.
I haven't always recorded my running in a diary so this figure won't be exactly accurate but is fairly close for the mileage that I have recorded.
If I was running from Bury St Edmunds where could I get to if I ran in a straight line? It is about 1/20 of the distance from the Earth to the Moon. Well I could have run through the whole of Western Europe , Asia , Australia and on to New Zealand. My 13,000 miles would place me somewhere in the South Pacific Ocean but with another 4,000 miles to go before I hit Santiago in Chile.
Of course rather than really being in the South Pacific I ran today in the Abbey Gardens Bury St Edmunds.The history of this site dates back to the 7th century when King Sigebert , the first Christian king of East Angles who established a small religious community here.
It is said that King Edmund who refused to rennounce his christain faith and was slain by the danish vikings is buried here in the 9th century.
King Cnut established a benedictine community here in the 11th century . With the dissolution of the monasteries in England the Abbey Gardens was neglected for 300 years until the Marquis of Bristol arranged for a botanical garden display. Over 2,000 garden plants were available to view and subscibers financed the maintenance and upkeep to this private victorian gardening gallery throughout most of the 19th century.
Even at the end of the 19th century 'riff raff' were not welcome as visitors could only enter at the cost of 1 shilling for an adult or 6d for a child. According to Mitchell (British Historical Statistics) the average agricultural wage in 1900 was around 14 shillings a week and a weeks dole money was 6d .
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