Running at one minute past midnight. Recovering from a broken foot. Six hours since my last five-kilometre run. This is day 2,067.

I am not sharing this to impress anyone. This is what streak running looks like in practice, and being honest about that matters.

The midnight run

Today I am travelling. That fact alone changes the logistics of the day. Over more than five and a half years of consecutive daily running, I have learned to get the run in before anything else has a chance to get in the way.

I ran at around half past five yesterday evening. By one minute past midnight, I was out again. Six hours between five-kilometre runs. I did not want to be running at midnight. There is nothing comfortable about heading out in the early hours, especially mid-injury recovery. The streak runs, though. The commitment I made on day one, reinforced every day since.

A police car pulled up slowly alongside me while I was filming. A man running in barefoot-style shoes at midnight holding a camera is a reasonable thing to check. The officer worked out quickly I was filming a vlog and drove off. This kind of thing barely registers any more, which says something about how thoroughly this has become my normal.

Running through a broken foot

About two and a half months ago, I broke my foot.

The timeline of this injury is worth laying out clearly. For the first four weeks, nobody knew there was a complete break. The initial assumption was a potential stress fracture, so no x-ray was taken and no supportive boot was provided. I kept running five kilometres a day through those four weeks with a fully broken foot and no support. By the time the x-ray confirmed the break, I had already run through a month of it without intervention.

Then I spent six weeks in a supportive boot. Five kilometres a day, every single day, in the boot, outdoors, in barefoot-style footwear as always.

The boot came off about two weeks ago. Since then I have been rebuilding, walking more than running, letting the foot adapt. At four kilometres into tonight's episode, I was running the furthest I had managed in nearly three months. My aim was to complete the full five kilometres. If I did, that would mark real progress for the first time in close to three months.

The physical side of recovery is one thing. The psychological side is harder to describe. I have little confidence in the foot right now, even when it feels okay. Every step carries a small doubt. Building back is as much a process of learning to trust the foot again as anything physical. My plan over the next couple of weeks is to get back to five, six, seven kilometre runs, and eventually back to my usual daily average of around seven and a half kilometres.

What the streak teaches about habit

2,067 consecutive days. Five kilometres minimum, every single day, outdoors, in barefoot-style footwear. Not once inside. Not once on a treadmill. Not once below five kilometres.

The lesson this enforces is simple: reinforced habits are real. The longer a streak runs, the more deeply it becomes part of identity rather than routine. A shift happens somewhere along the way. Once that shift occurs, the threshold for what you will endure to protect the streak rises considerably.

Running at midnight before travel is not a discipline decision made in the moment. The decision was made on day one, reinforced on day ten, day one hundred, day five hundred. Each day added another layer. By day 2,067, I am not deciding whether to run. I am only working out how.

The broken foot was never genuinely a question either. Stopping would mean becoming a different person. The only condition under which this streak ends is if my body physically prevents five kilometres from being possible. Until then, the run goes in.

The mission behind the streak

I am 15,967.11 kilometres into a 40,075-kilometre challenge: a lap of the world on foot, in barefoot-style footwear, vlogged on every consecutive day. The goal is to raise £1 million for children's causes, including Great Ormond Street Hospital and BBC Children in Need. There are 24,107.89 kilometres still to cover.

The streak and the mission are inseparable. Every day I run, a piece of content is created. Every piece of content reaches someone new. Every new person is a potential supporter of the cause. The fundraising depends entirely on consistency. Consistency depends entirely on the streak.

So when I run at midnight, six hours after my last run, still recovering from a broken foot, with a police car pulling up to check what I am doing, this is not stubbornness. The run is the mechanism through which the mission stays alive.

If I am remembered for anything, it will not be the businesses I built. It will be for the children whose lives were changed because I kept running every single day and did not stop.

That is reason enough to lace up at midnight.

Day 2,067. 15,967.11 kilometres in. 24,107.89 kilometres to go.

Watch the full episode: https://youtu.be/7S5c0uc7hY4