I see many of you have been able to run through the festive holiday - I managed a Christmas day parkrun; notable for being a run on Christmas day but also my first ever run with my youngest son AND my first - and last - parkrun of this year! I see Wales have now paused parkrun again, let's hope it isn't for too long this time.
As we bring 2021 to a close I daresay I'm not the only one positively willing 2022 to be better on so many levels! Looking back, my main running achievement of 2021 was finally completing Oxford Half Marathon and getting it off my future schedule! For 2022, I'm hoping for less injury time and a less committed schedule so that I can pull back if I feel even the slightest hint of trouble - oh, and finally being able to run the Chester Metric Marathon now October is free!!!
What was your running highlight of 2021? And your running hopes for 2022? Let us know. Not 'resolutions' (which always sound like hard work to me!), just highlights andhopes🥰
How's your running going, or are you too trying to find patience on the IC? Do let us know in the comments. If you're new here, jump in and say Hello! 😁
Hope you had a lovely Christmas and here's to a happy and healthy new year, whatever your plans! Bon courage!!!
The Marathon Team xxx
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My running highlight for the year was running the Bristol Half and meeting up with cheekychipmunks and SkiMonday . It was fab for the event to go ahead at last, it was a memorable day and then the icing on the cake to finally meet Munks and SM 🙂
My running hopes for 2022 is to push beyond HM and avoid injury. I thought I’d try last year but I always seemed to be training for something so it was tricky, timing -wise.
So my plan is to start upping the distance after Bristol. I have another HM in August so that should give me time 🤞
I haven’t got an event in mind and I want to see how my body copes so I’ll take it very slowly and stop at the first sign of a niggle. (I promise this to myself 🙄)
Bristol HM and the associated meet up did sound a very successful highlight for 2021! I'm sure you will easily get beyond HM distance, with a bit of caution; you seem to have a really good understanding of what works for you and when - that's got to be half the battle! We look forward to reading all about it 😊
I'm so pleased you've asked about highlights and hopes because I gave up on resolutions some years ago - too stressful and guilt-inducing!
My 2021 running highlight has to be the trail marathon. Not just for completing it, but because of the experience itself and all the memories it created.
Other achievements? Going into a proper running shop for the first time in January 2021, raising several hundred pounds for charity via the Spring HUHM, and not giving up when confronted with a very steep, muddy forest path part-way through my first-ever (23k trail) event in June.
For 2022, achieving a new distance best would be nice, but my main hope is for healthy, happy running. Wishing the same for you all, too - Bonne Année (et surtout la santé) !
Somehow resolutions sound doomed to fail to me ... It's so good that you can now reflect on your trail marathon with fond memories. At the time it seemed to be a challenge, but it was clearly worthwhile - brilliant! A greater distance for 2022 probably means an additional hill or two, right? We look forward to reading all about it with open mouths 😲😍. A happy and healthy New Year to you too 😊
In all honesty I found actually doing the trail marathon way more fun and much easier than the months of training. I appreciate that this makes me a freak!
Oh no, I'm right with you on that! The first few weeks of a plan are fun, but then it becomes a tie and a pressure. The event itself is a grand finale and a great release 🤣
Thanks Jo - hope you have had a good break too. 50k is a great achievement, twice in quick succession is amazing 😍 but the cold water swimming just bonkers in my book! 🤣 The South Downs Way is a great mission - bon courage indeed!
Hi Linda! I love that you did your first and last parkrun of the year, and will you and youngest son be having a rematch?
I have had three completely amazing running (mostly) events this year, it's hard to pick a highlight!! At the Oxford Half I met your good self, had a fabulous run, and then spent five hours* in the pub 😂 I ran the extra-long Brighton Marathon and survived a teddy bear attack at the finish line 🐻 And the London Triathlon was just the most amazing adventure!!!!!
I've got a lot of events booked in 2022, and they're all ones I haven't done before. I admit I'm feeling a bit jaded and I'd really like to shake things up next year...
I've had a bit of bother with my left heel over the past few weeks, and have been taking advantage of not having much time for running to give it a good rest. Marathon training starts soon 😊😊😊
Happy New Year and bon courage, Linda and all xxxxx
Not sure about a parkrun rematch. I'm unlikely to cross the line before him, but he's an awful lot of work to put in to beat my age graded score!!! He did enjoy it though - said it was more fun than running alone - so even if I've only inspired him to run a couple more I'll be happy 😊. That's an impressive haul for a bad year - three highlights in 2021 is quite an achievement!!! Do you mean you need to add something new into the mix to shake things up - or are the booked events the shake up in themselves?
Think my running highlight of 2021 was being able to maintain consistent running mileage. My hope for 2022 is to get comfortable at HM distance, and maybe a Metric if all goes well. Bon courage everyone! ❤️🏃♀️🏃🏻♂️
What a fab photo! Your 2021 mileage was phenomenal, and all the better for exceeding your expectations. Comfortable running is a great goal, and a metric marathon should be more than achievable. Here's to a successful 2022!!!
My proudest achievement this year was achieving 10 miles 😊 My running buddy wants to build up to this eventually so I may do it again this year. I’m also proud of myself for running twice a week, most weeks, all year despite having a crazy busy job 🥵 18 months on running is now part of my life and I can comfortably run a 5k and 10k which is quite something in my book 😁
Those are fabulous achievements, especially in such a short space of time. Another 10 miles in 2022 is a great goal, you know you can do it and this time you can enjoy it too!
Evenin all 🙂. I hope everyone is having a happy Christmas, enjoying running or relaxing. I also hope you had some running related gifts in your stocking 🧦 🎁
Good old Santa entered me into a race! 🎅🏻🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗. Trail half marathon on 27th March. My training is underway 🏃♀️
Have a good running week everyone. For those on the bench, hurry and get well 🙂🤞
Hi Linda, hope you and your family had a wonderful Christmas! 🎄
I’ve had a fantastic year of running, and met up with lots of ARBs at various different events. The Reunion 5k at Kempton Park with Dexy5 , UpTheStanley and Oldgirlruns , the extremely 🥵 Cheltenham race course 10k with Sandie1961 , TailChaser , Katnap and Shake-and-run , the Bristol HM with Irishprincess and SkiMonday , and the GSR with most of the above plus Coddfish and David_G ! (Please don’t let me have forgotten anyone!!)
I also ran the Severn Bridge 10k (where I got a PB 😀) in August and have already entered again for next year. Another ARB meet-up is being planned there, as well as at the Bath Half in March and the GSR. My younger daughter began accompanying me to PR too, which was lovely. Running doesn’t stop giving does it? 🥰
However, I’ve stagnated a bit since the GSR and have only run a fraction of what I did prior to it. Still, I’ve started my NRC HM plan to take me up to Bath, so hopefully I’ll kickstart 2022 well.
Happy Christmas to you Linda! It’s been a surprisingly busy year really considering it didn’t really get going until May.
My achievement for the year is the swelteringly hot Compton Verney HM which I’d wound myself up about for weeks but turned into a triumph after some extremely helpful advice on here, for which I will be forever grateful (together with the surrounding local’s hosepipe skills). I’m also still very chuffed to becoming a parkrun Run Director, maybe we can persuade you to do a few more next year Linda?!
2022 I’d like to finally get my 100th parkrun - only 10 more to go now 🤞🤞🤞 And I’d like to get my Winter Series hoody - only 2 more to go now! Then I have an event a month booked (or pending) until November, including meeting up with lovely ARBs again, including IP at the Bath Half who I’ve yet to meet. Also there should be more parkrun tourism as we start to look for unis for youngest kitten 😱. So, as long as I stay injury free-ish and Boris let’s me, it should be a pretty busy and exciting year.
Hey that’s an idea Dexy! I’ve got a reindeer costume that needs wearing again, maybe it could be an Easter reindeer? 🤔 Maybe not…. We are always quite in sync aren’t we? I think damienair is on a similar number to us too.
PR run directors are awesome! As a run director you will probably appreciate that I have volunteered at PR more times than I have run 😍. You have a very busy 2022 lined up - enjoy every minute of it!
Oh yes Linda, that’s a very good ratio to have, and quite a rare one for a runner. Good on you 😀👍 Run Directoring is mildly terrifying but quite exhilarating. Knowing you’ve helped 250+ people have a great start to the weekend is something special. I’ve yet to do it on my own yet though, I’m not that brave!I certainly will try to enjoy as much of it as I can! I’m really looking forward to all these events.
I'd like to be really fast .... then I could be back from my run in time to barcode scan for the bulk of the pack ... but that's NEVER going to happen 🤣🤣
I started 2021 with a bit of a knee injury and did my first 60 minute run on the first Sunday, doing an uncomfortable 8km run. I then had over a week off to let it heal. (The right knee joint did swell up a little during that week.) The cause was trying to duplicate the 5km-in-30mins that I'd graduated C25K with, but I also duplicated getting injured doing it.
Then I decided that I wouldn't try chasing times again, but instead to concentrate on extending distances regardless of how slowly I took them.
I got to 10km in early February and kept extending through the following months until I was up to 18km in the middle of April.
Then I seized up in my following long run, with my left leg's hamstring muscle becoming painful just behind the knee on downhill bits. I had to stop for 10 minutes to let a canal boat go through a lift bridge, and after that I found I couldn't restart the run at all. It was too painful.
I eased off a little but something else was wrong. I was feeling a pulling inside the groin on my right side. I decided to visit a physio who diagnosed tight hamstrings and glutes, and that the pull was actually the adductor muscle being used in compensation for the tight muscles. The good news was that I could keep running, but to do extra exercises to loosen and activate the underused muscles. A foam roller also entered the scene a day or two later.
Things had improved so much by the second weekend in June I did my first sub-hour 10km run.
I then extended my distance to the point I was back at 10 miles at the start of July.
Then the heatwave struck in the middle of July and even 5km was a major struggle.
I did my first ever parkrun when they resumed near the end of July. I did it far too quickly and had to walk parts of it near the end.
I was a bit ill at the start of August. At the end of the month I did 10 miles in rural Cambridgeshire, getting a nasty set of horsefly bites the same day. These got infected and needed antibiotics to clear them.
The second weekend in September saw me running the Half Marathon distance. It was around that time that I gradually fell into doing around five runs per week.
October had a target: a 10km race that I'd entered with a dozen work colleagues. It had been postponed from the previous October and again from July. I was determined not to get injured ahead of it. And then I did another half marathon distance the Monday before. In the event, of the dozen who had signed up only four of us actually ran on the day. It rained just before the start: it absolutely hammered down.
For November and December, with the worsening weather and failing light, my objective was just to keep up the same level of activity. I surprised myself in November by doing two HMs on consecutive weekends. I also did a HM distance in mid December.
I'm finishing off the month trying to fit in runs where I can.
I plan to do the Watergrove parkrun (Rochdale) on New Year's Day as my usual park will not be hosting one.
I look like finishing the year about 40km short of having run 1000 miles in 2021. So close! Oh well!
My achievement of the year is actually getting through it without any serious injury. I'm also ending the year about 6kg lighter than when I started it.
I might be tempted to do RED January, but I'll have to think about it a bit.
That's one long list of achievements Nowster - lots of highlights there, not to mention detrmination 😊
Hellow and thanks for the questions!
My running highlights this year were definitely reaching 10K and then 10 miles (even though they are Jeffed). And this despite having (re)started running only mid November 2020. I think for a couch potato like me, those are 2 great successes.
As for running hopes, at the moment that is just continue running. Am in a bit of a dip at the moment and haven't run for 2 to 3 weeks now. So I have to get myself started again. Besides that I just hope to keep enjoying running and maybe to throw in a ten miler again. But first I have to get myself of that couch again!
Just downloaded something like C25K but from Belgium in Flemish (Start to Run). I was kinda thinking to try and go out after work today. But it is pouring outside, no-oo, not going out in this weather. If I want a shower, I'll take a hot one in my bathroom!
Haha! It's hard to get out if it's already raining isn't it? I got soaked yesterday and it was fine ... but it was dry when I set out 😊 We're still watching you though ...
Happy Christmas Linda! Well Happy New Year now I suppose.... My 2022 is starting the same way as 2021.... I have entered the Run1000 agri5nations run for team Wales, for January motivation!! Last year I ran / walked 100km in the month for the DJP foundation, a farming mental health charity, and Wales won with most km covered! However this year I'm just recovering from that virus (not covid) so not sure how I'll get on..... plus back to teaching as well as the farm, so time poor too!!
My most proud moment of 2021 was completing my first half marathon and that being the most amazing Health unlocked spring half! I loved everything about it, the camarardarie, music, training support, raising a surprising amount for Alzheimers. Most importantly everyone here at HU has been the driving force behind all my training levels, from 5k to 10k, to 10 miles then half! My head would like to go further but my body is saying hang on a bit.....
I did my first 'real' race, Wye valley tunnel 10k.... I bravely went on my own which was weird but I did meet some friendly people also there alone! I have only entered one race so far this year so far, another 10k in Pontypool this time, I may try more though!!
My aim this year is to train properly (core strength too!) and focus on maintaining regular weekly running by planning my time around running!!
2021 was a good running year for you CLR! Listening to your body is so wise, but keep up that aim of core strength training and you may find yourself going even further in 2022!
Hi Linda, my running highlight of 2021 were in late August and early September as well as the day I ran the Virtual London 10,000 and got my first medal, I just got an email inviting me to run it again in late April or early May, I have set the date of Wednesday 4th May to run it a 2nd time.
In late August and early September I got several PB's for different runs, at the 3 parkruns I run at I got a PB, I also got a PB for a (not) parkrun as well and also several of them on the local routes I run near to where I live, all those PB's in a period over 4 weeks from mid-August to mid-September, so a good running year for me, I wish you a very good running year for 2022.
Hello Linda, The thing that kept me going during the dark lockdown period was regular (not) parkruns followed by takeaway coffees with my locals Coddfish x 2, Oldgirlruns and UpTheStanley and sometimes, JonathanP. Like cheekychipmunks , my highlights were The Reunion Race which kick started running post lockdown and provided a bit of normality with real people, the Great South Run with actual running buddies, as mentioned by cheekychipmunks, plus JonathanP . The return of parkrun was the pinnacle and Southsea parkrun has just released its list of volunteers for this year and I’m also proud to see that our motley crew are all in the top 12.
Next year I hope parkrun will continue without breaks, and to finally run the Vitality 10k in London having been deferred the last 2 years. I’ve also signed up for 10k at the New Forest Marathon in September, which I last ran in 2019.
Hi Linda, I'm loving the replies to your post. My running highlights this year are graduating C25K, completing 10k distance twice (my 2nd one this morning), and running 2-3 times a week.
For 2022 I want to run 3 times a week, extend the distance of my long run on the weekend and be more consistent with my strength training to support my running.
2021 was a fabulous running year for you. Welcome to this forum - there's lots of hints and tips here for extending your distance - and loads of support from like minded runners. Enjoy pushing the boundaries in 2022 😊
Hi Linda, it must have been great to run with your youngest! I’m still trying to get my kids to run with me. Still not cool enough I guess 🤓.
Regarding 2021, the high point was definitely the Sticks n Stones 50k. It was so good to finally run it in person after a 1yr delay. In 2020 my friends and I trained and ran the same course only much slower. Still good fun though, Another completed goal for this year was to get more elevation into my training. Strava is saying I am up to 32,500m year to date. Double what I managed last year!
As for next year I just booked a 22k trail race in October and on Monday I’m hoping to sign up for another 50k trail in Haliburton in early September. A friend or two may also sign up. This one should be a bit more challenging than the last 50 I did. They also make it a fun event with a big bonfire and drinks and snacks while the 100mile folks finish up so it should be good if I can get in.
I remember that 50k - definitely a highlight after the previous year! 100 mile folks? So they all get to arrive after the rest of you have rested, eaten and drunk well? Oh my! I hope you all give them a good welcome 😍
HNY Linda and everyone else. Personal highlights for me were my first sub 30 5k and my first HM. Really enjoyed being part of the Spring HUHM and COGH. I still remember the look on my partner’s face when I said I wasn’t just going out running now but also writing about running through Central Europe 😂. I’ve tailed off in the 2nd half of the year but still get out 3 times most weeks.
Hopes for 2022 are to get back up to HM and give park run a go, when it doesn’t clash with kids football.
That's funny - non running partners do struggle to grasp the full enormity of this passion don't they 😊. I can see that parkrun is tricky as a parent come taxi driver, but definitely worth giving it a go if you can. Enjoy getting back to half marathon 😊
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