Hey everyone!

I’m taking on a massive mileage goal this month and wanted to share with you my progress as I’ve come to the mid point!

Many of you have already reached out to me asking what I’m upto after seeing the looong runs I’ve been doing recently.

I’m doing Sean Conway’s 496 Challenge, and for those who haven’t seen it before, the math is simple but brutal: you run the number of kilometers corresponding to the day of the month.

• Day 1 = 1km
• Day 2 = 2km
• …all the way to Day 31 = 31km.
• Total Monthly Distance: 1+2+3…+31 = 496km.

My Twist: The “Planned Tombola”

The classic version is a steady “escalator” of pain, but given that I have a full time job and family commitments, I had to find a more pragmatic approach. That’s when I found the Planned Tombola approach suggested by Sean Conway himself.

This means I’m still running every single distance from 1km to 31km exactly once, but I’ve mapped them out to fit my actual life:

I first mapped out all the days in March, i.e. date and day of the week. Next I added the public holidays (sadly only 1 this month), then added the days I need to work from office as we follow a hybrid approach at ParentPay. Had to also consider the Q2 planning days, as they will be mandatory WFO days. Then I had to factor in my birthday, Sandra’s birthday, our Wedding Anniversary and my Son’s sports meet day.

With all this information filled in, I planned the distances 1km to 31km. First I put the longest runs (31K-22K) on the weekends and the public holiday. Then the rest of the distances so that I build up to the long runs on the weekend and also have some short runs in between to help with recovery.

I wanted to run 10k on our 10th Wedding Anniversay on the 10th of March, 11K on the 11th – my birthday, and 12K on the 12th – Sandra’s birthday. Also, how could I not run 13K on Friday the 13th!

There are a lot more aspects of this challenge that I want to write about and share with you, but that will come in a separate blog post once I’m done with this challenge!

Untill then, do follow me on Strava or Instagram for daily updates; your support and encouragement is very much appreciated!

Here is a summary of where I stand as of 15th March 2026!