Here is the usual end of year post. It has been an incredible year for my running. Last year’s plan was to go from half marathon to ultra marathon and I made it.
2015 has been the year of the “firsts”: first marathon, first 50k, first 50 miles, first multi-stage race and unfortunately first serious injury.
If it had not been for the last 2 months where I could not run due to injury, the rest of the year I basically run 6 times a week (except for race recovery and tapering).
Here is my 2015 in numbers:
I have run a total of 3801 km for a total of 312 hours. Here is the usual Strava end of year movie.
I ran 14 races:
- One 50 mile race
- One 50 k race
- One 3 day event (84 miles in total)
- 4 marathons
- 2 half marathons
- One 10 mile race
- 2 Park Runs (5k)
Here is a summary:
January
I ran my first marathon, the Trailscape Ashurst Trail Marathon, where I learnt that I was not very good at pacing at all!
February
I ran my second marathon, the Trailscape Wendover Trail Marathon, where I learnt that the stomach can be your worst enemy.
March
I ran my third marathon, the Thames Meander Marathon, were I did my PB but I was not very happy at the end as I (again) completely paced it wrong.
April
Training got serious for the NDW50 and started running well over 100k per week. I did my first back to back long runs during the week ends and ran my first 50k in training (and felt like superman)
May
The “awesomest” month of the year where I ran my first ultra, the North Downs Way 50 mile race. I was an amazing experience and I was hooked.
June
I recovered fast, dedicated the month to speed training, ran a Bushy Park Run to check progress (matched my Bushy PB) and then ran the Richmond Park Half Marathon where I really enjoyed competing and finished 9th.
July
I went a bit crazy and ran a marathon one week and a half marathon the week after. In the North Downs Way Marathon I discovered that the NDW is a killer whatever the distance and that pacing was still unknown to me.
Pacing was not needed at the Wimbledon Common Half Marathon where I just went as fast as I could all the time, finishing 9th and almost beating my PB (the mud made it hard).
August
I took an holiday from racing by did a lot of running. I explored part of the Ridgeway and part of the South Downs Way (beautiful). Then I ran a lot in Italy, mostly running from crazy wild boars.
September
I ran the High Weald Challenge 50k Ultra where I really enjoyed the company of Craig, but was not too pleased with the last 10k.
October
I ran the Royal Borough of Kingston 10 mile race where I finished 14th and got new PBs on 10k, 15k and 10 miles, but then took ages to recover from.
November
Another super awesome race! I did the Druid Challenge, my first multi stage event, I loved every second of it, ran 84 miles, finished 13th, but picked up a nasty shin injury.
December
Sad month. I only ran 5k here and there just to check the injury but things did not get any better. Luckily the rest of the year has been so amazing I did not mind losing 1.5 months of running.
What’s next?
In 2016 I will probably race a bit less (I already cancelled the January marathon due to the injury), but I will do more longer races. I have already entered all four 50 mile races from Centurion Running and I will therefore try to do the Grand Slam of 50s. In between I will definitely run some more marathons, maybe a couple of half (the local ones) and hopefully I will help my friends Davide and Manu pacing them when they come here to run the NDW100 and SDW100 respectively.
I hope you will have a wonderful 2016. See you out there!