2010 - a Year in Review

Having taken a week to contemplate the year that was, I've come to the conclusion that after 30-odd years of running, I have finally managed to do it properly.  I managed fewer weeks off than ever before (only 4 weeks < 10 miles, and 2 of those were planned recovery); no down-time due to injury for more than a few days; a new marathon PB; and 3 trail marathons.

2010 began with the farce of an icy 10k.  Most of the county was frozen, but we braved the snowy roads and icy field for my first ever official "cross-country" race.  Due to the conditions, some of the course was closed and we had several laps of some school fields.  Each lap made the track more slippery.  My trail shoes eventually compacted with frozen snow and I endured the final mile certain in the knowledge that I would have spikes for 2011.  I have, and they've been snow-tested and are great!

I moved through the next few months towards my first marathon in 11 years and my first trail marathon.  It went better than expected, so I lined up a schedule to attempt a big PB in the autumn.  The short races ticked by.  The holidays came and went with running and hiking built in to the relaxation time.  October arrived and the struggle through Amsterdam was slower than I wanted, but still resulted in a big improvement over 1999.

While I was working on my endurance, I got a bit silly and entered a 7 marathon trail race series.  Two of those are done now, and I'm looking forward to finding out just how much more I can do this year.  I'm loving the trail races, and if I get through to June in good shape, I may just have another go at Amsterdam.


In short, although I didn't always get the individual race performances I wanted, I broadly achieved everything I wanted from 2010.  That's much more satisfying than 2009, when I picked up PBs at 5k, 10k, and half marathon but spent the first quarter easing back from injury and the last month recovering from another.  So, I start 2011 a little slower than I would like, but uninjured and with more endurance than ever before. Now it's time to look at the schedule and see just what sort of silliness I can fit in for this year!