Life

With 348 days alcohol free and under 5 percent of 2012 left, I was closing in on my first Christmas without beer in more than 20 years.

My family and I did a 3k Santa Fun Run in Pitville Park, Cheltenham, with my wife and kids walking it while I ran, finishing in the top ten.

I ran the 8.5 mile Grim Original, an off road race through ice cold water, thick mud and a cargo net that claimed people’s shoes, finishing in 1:18:40.

The night before the Grim Original, an 8.5 mile mud run through Aldershot, I learned the water features were already freezing over for race day.

With my year without beer more than 90 percent done, I marked it with an alcohol free cocktail at the top of a Chicago skyscraper.

A training run through a Chicago park ahead of the Grim, plus a fresh green vegetable juice that kept me running thousands of miles from home.

My first ever Thanksgiving, spent with colleagues in Chicago, stayed alcohol free even with shots and red wine flowing, and ended with a car accident that left nobody hurt.

A surprise upgrade to business class with British Airways meant turning down free champagne and wine, all in the name of my year without beer.

At a work conference full of free bars and free wine, I went through the whole thing without a single alcoholic drink, and noticed the difference the next morning.

Less than five months after I started running, unable to manage a single mile, I was on track to pass my target of 500 miles that weekend.

With ten months of my year without beer done, I also passed 90 percent of my challenge to run 500 miles by the end of the year.

Ten months into my year without beer, I looked at why cutting back on alcohol matters and how my running challenge was progressing alongside it.