The year 2015 has only been over for just about a couple of weeks but it already seems very much in the rearview mirror! It was an interesting year, for sure, when it came to mileage goals. In fact, it became one of my more interesting years of travel and running all time so I thought it I would take a quick note of what mileage goals were achieved and some of the surprise ones that came up.
2015: A Look At Mileage Goals Achieved & Some Surprise Ones Realized
Before 2015 started, here were my mileage goals, both for travel & running:
- Re-qualify for Aegean Gold – requiring 12,000 miles and 4 Aegean flights
- Re-qualify for Alaska MVP Gold 75K – requiring 90,000 miles (because it would not be exclusively on Alaska flights)
- Run every day, at least 1 mile – (I tried this before and voluntarily stopped in early April because I was dealing with a couple of leg/feet things and knew it would be good to be off them)
- Do a big running event
- Run the year (2,015 miles in 2015)
Ok, that is a modest list of goals! I knew that Aegean Gold was a must as they are the airline I fly the most and Alaska was a nice wish since I really wanted the over 250,000 award miles that I would earn as a result of flying the 90K, elite bonus, and the 50K bonus for achieving it.
On the running side, I thought I would go ahead and give it a go on the running streak since 1 mile a day is not that hard. I had talked here about doing a big running event, but I had a completely different one in mind than I ended up doing!
Travel Mileage Goals
Some of my travel goals were realized this year, including some surprise ones! | Courtesy Shutterstock
It was a little more difficult than I thought it would be to achieve my airline mileage goals. That is because from January – July, I didn’t fly once! That is the longest time without a flight for me in years! But, with my wife coming to the end of her pregnancy and the new baby, it just didn’t work. So, I had to work a bit harder to hit my goals, especially since a majority of my flying is on awards and they do not earn elite miles!
Here are my mileage totals for the year:
- January – 20,056 Miles
- Tiberias Marathon – 1,856
- Etihad First Class Apartment Trip – 7,040 miles
- Other – 11,160 (made a bit of a mistake on this one as I wanted to credit to United to get my last bump of 1K status and award miles and should have credited to Aegean. 🙁 )
- July – 10,071 Miles
- August – 6,140 Miles
- Cairo Training Trip – 1,746 miles
- Abu Dhabi Training Trip – 4,394
- September – 28,579 Miles
- My 6 Marathons / 6 Continents / 5 Days Trip – 28,579 miles
- November – 21,752 Miles
- AA Executive Platinum Trips – 20,359 miles
- December – 20,436 Miles
- AA Executive Platinum Trip – 5,312 miles
- Other – 15,124 miles
- 2015 Total – 107,000 Miles
That was quite an end of the year! Within 5 weeks, I had flown over 40,000 miles. In fact, in the span of just 6 weeks out of 52, I flew 68,579 miles!
Most of these miles were award miles with the notable exception of the AA Executive Platinum trips.
Aegean Gold – Achieved
In the end, I had to buy some miles to top this one off as I had to cancel a couple of planned trips because of some things that came up. I should be fine this year since the Aegean year started November 24, 2015 and I am over half way to requalifying. 🙂
Alaska MVP Gold 75K – Failed
In the end, that was too ambitious of a goal for my schedule (90,000 miles). I had counted on flying a lot of their partners like British Airways and Emirates but because my big running trip changed, so did those plans.
American Airlines Executive Platinum – Surprise Goal Achieved
This one was a surprise that popped up in October and it took any miles away that I would have credited to Alaska – and I am glad for it! I won’t go all into this one here as I have another post about achieving AA Executive Platinum status with under $500 and 60K Avios that you can read. But, I am looking forward to getting some great value from this status this year!
Running Mileage Goals
I hit some nice running goals this year that I was happy with! | Courtesy Shutterstock
If I do not have a race on the books, then I typically have to do something different to get out there and put up 40+ mile weeks. I love running, but my life is so busy that the running can easily get crowded out or shrunk. But, when I have a race, I know I need to squeeze those runs in. That is why I like to set a running goal (or 3).
1 Year Running Streak – Achieved
The first time I did this, I set the minimum at 2 miles per day. But this time I thought I would just go with the more standard 1 mile a day. There were some days it was hard to get it in (even though it was only 8-10 minutes of running) – like the day after I finished running the 6 marathons on the 6 continents, after long travel, etc – but I was able to complete it! And then January 1 of this year, I purposely did not run 1 mile just to not let myself get sucked into doing it again. 🙂
Run The Year – Achieved+More
My running chart for 2015
Running 2,015 miles in a year equals 5.5 miles per day or 38.5 miles per week, on the average. I figured I would not have a big problem getting that done since I had some big training in mind.
But, the training I did was so intense, I realized that I might just be able to run more miles in a year than I ever had before (the previous record for me was 2,500). So, I shot for 2,600 miles which would equal an average of 50 miles per week. I actually thought about getting 2,620 miles (equal to 100 marathons) but December was a terrible month for running for me and I ended at 2,604 miles (in a total of 400 runs). Still the best amount in a year for me ever!
Big Running Event – Achieved But Different
This was our finish in DC, the final run. Glenn from Military Frequent Flyer ran this leg with me
Ok, this was going to be something completely different! I had planned on trying to enter and run the 100K Ice event on the mainland of Antarctica (taking place this month). I have always loved Antarctica and love running long distances so thought this would be perfect. But, this ended up getting changed into something different.
Last January, I had some people asking me about the organized 7 marathons on 7 continents in 7 days (which is a phenomenal effort!) as to the travel cost. One event charged $14,000 and the other $38,000 (or so, it is in Euros) with the more expensive one actually having the final marathon on the mainland of Antarctica which no other event does (and that costs more). I had attempted a 6on6in5 years ago as a charity effort (solo runs of 26.2 miles each and not sanctioned marathons) but missed Egypt because of some issues there.
Running 6 Marathon Runs On 6 Continents In 5 Days Using Miles & Points
Since this is a travel/miles/points/running blog, I thought it would be fun to put together another 6 marathons on 6 continents in 5 day event but this time do the whole thing on miles while flying in first or business class to show what can be done with miles and points.
So the Running Round the World With Miles event was born. Sure enough, I was able to do the airfare part in miles and under $250 for travel around the world in business and first class and that most certainly helped me to be able to complete 6 marathons (26.2 mile solo events that were not sanctioned events) on 6 continents in 4 days and 21 hours. It was certainly an experience (and one that I still have some stories to write about it!). So this was my big running event of 2015!
Summary
It is always good to have goals. Without goals, some of us would not get out and do that much! This is how my mileage goals for 2015 shaped up and I certainly was surprised at some of them – specifically achieving AA Executive Platinum and running 6 marathon runs on 6 continents!
What will 2016 bring? I have some ideas but as last year showed me, those can certainly change and in a big way! We shall we what they turn into!
I know some of you had mileage goals – for travel and/or running. How did you do? What are your goals for 2016?
