A LOCAL athlete has run at least a mile a day every day for 3,289 days straight meaning he now could have circumnavigated the globe twice.

The ninth anniversary of Gareth Cooke’s running streak took place last Saturday, with the Wilthorpe-based athlete now having covered more than 50,000 miles.

Whether facing extreme weather or going abroad, Gareth who works at Barnsley Council and helped organise this year’s 10k event always makes sure to get his running in.

“I started running over a decade ago to raise money for Cancer Research UK after my grandma passed away,” he told the Chronicle.

“Eventually I was going out every day and it became a bit of a ritual if you want to improve you’ve got to train.

“Before I knew it I fell into this running streak.”

His hero is Ron Hill, who managed to keep his streak going for 52 years and Gareth said he hopes to emulate the feat.

While it admittedly isn’t easy to keep such a ritual going, the 30-year-old praised the knock-on health benefits.

“Running and any form of physical activity can help with every illness,” he added.

“I’m a big believer in prioritising yourself and it can be just taking half an hour a day for exercise.

“People have lots of responsibilities with work and kids, but if you just take an extra ten to 30 minutes a day to prioritise yourself that still leaves you with 23-and-a-half hours of the day.

“Once I did my run at Manchester Airport I was travelling to Abu Dhabi and my flight was at 1am so I did my run around the airport to get it in for that day.

“Running 100 miles a week can be a bit daunting so it’s looking at how you can make little changes to your life, even if it’s going out for a walk.

“It might be the difference that lets you meet your grandkids.”