my year in brief

Well ... the end of another year and for me it was a year of three parts.

The first part was spent recovering from a broken bone in my foot - falling down a flight of steps at home is not a good idea.

The second (and best ...) part was training for, and taking part in, two long ultra distance races.  The first was the ULTRArace 100 mile event around the Cotswolds in England.  Really enjoyed this race in stunning scenery and good weather.  It was good to have Hugh Pearson (Otley AC clubmate) crewing for me and hopefully we'll be able to continue that relationship as his running and coaching experience is invaluable.  My report can be read here.

The second - and most important - race was the World 24 hour Championships which were held in Poland at the beginning of September.  The first 21 hours of that race were fantastic as I was on schedule for well over 240 km .. and feeling good too.  The atmosphere was terrific and the crewing was brilliant (thanks go to Eleanor Robinson, Richard Brown, Adrian Stott, Rory Coleman, Marco Consani and Andy Smith).  My brief report can be read here.

The third part of my running year began at 9:00am on Sunday 9 September.  Injury struck during that 24 hour race as it did for about 10% of the runners.  I've since learned that the IAU considered moving the race to a different part of the park because of the poor condition of the road surface and sharp corners.  This report by US runner Jonathan Savage explains ...

Although I seem to have now recovered from that badly sprained ankle I was also struck down by gout in late November and early December which delayed my return to running somewhat.  Thaings are now progressing nicely though and today's 20 minute run scored an encouraging 97.5 % although the abysmal weather made it very hard work.

That's a brief account of my running year but there has been other highlights too.  Most notably Keir successfully passing his A levels and getting into the university of his choice - Ulster - to read History.  That's been his plan for a few year's now and I'm pleased that it's come off for him.  I'm so proud of his achievements too.  He's worked hard for that and he deserves it ... I remember spending about an hour a day for three or four years helping him with speech therapy exercises.

And next year ... more races of course ... have fun and take care.