What A Summer Holiday by Chanakhya Jakovic

What A Summer Holiday

Welshman Abichal Watkins decided to spend his summer in New York — that in itself is not remarkable. The fact that he spent the time running 3100 miles around a school in Queens, New York is. Watkins was one of 12 participants in the 2004 Self-Transcendence 3100 mile race.

The race is run on a .5488 of a mile sidewalk loop. The participants get to run or walk for 18 hours from 6am to midnight trying to accumulate as many miles each day in their quest to complete 3100 miles. This is Watkins' second attempt at the distance, last year he completed 2747 miles in 53 days, an average of 52.01 miles per day.

Watkins is the editor of a new running website, Multidays.com and a forthcoming book titled the Multiday Runners Handbook. Oh! By the way, the 43 year old from Pontypool finished the race this year completing the distance of 3100 miles in 55 days + 8:32:41 at an average of around 56 miles per day, he then went on to reach 5000k in 55 days 11:04:59, both Welsh and British records (pending).

Chanakhya Jakovic