In this blog post I am not going to mention the thing that we have been talking about ALL year as I am right fed up of it.
Instead I am going to do my yearly round up of my running year. Despite most of the year's races being cancelled I have surprisingly been very busy running. Without a doubt the highlight of my running year has been getting my running buddy Yvonne up the hills! Finally, I have someone who I can just about keep up with in the hills and who enjoys splooshing through mud and puddles as much as I do (with the exception of Kobi obviously).
So here goes. I am going to break this year's reflection into months.
January 2020
So 2020 started as a 'normal' year. My year was going to be about running the Windermere Marathon in May with Mark and my training/race plan was all around that. The first month of this year brought three races, the Great Stirling Castle run (which I bought entries for Mark for his birthday 😁) and the Vogrie 10km with my Jog Scotland buddies and finally the Glentress 10km.
It was touch and go as to whether we would go to the Great Stirling Castle run as the weather was beyond just being a bit wet, however we put on our brave pants and went along to the castle. As it was it did sort of dry up and we got the best part of the day. There was a LOT of mud but a spectacular route up and around the castle hill.
Then onto Vogrie, again a LOT of mud, there is a pattern beginning to appear here I feel. We had a great time, a tough course but worth it, and a nice cup of tea at the end, if I remember rightly!
Last race in January saw me down in Glentress again. I love the High Terrain trail race series and Glentress 10km is a firm favourite. As usual it was snowy. We stood at the start line in a blizzard, and as usual by the end the sun was shining. It is a great wee race the Glentress 10km, I can highly recommend it. Not easy but a fabulous trail run.
February 2020
February came along with all the promise of a year of getting fit to run a marathon and Yvonne and I rashly entered the Lasswade 10 mile race. This is a race that I have avoided my whole running life as I was certain it was going to be too fast for me and that I would get dropped and hopelessly left behind. However, running with Yvonne gave me the confidence to give it a go. And somehow or other I managed to talk Mark into running it too. I'm pretty sure had he known about the MAHOOSIVE freezing cold knee deep puddles he may have rethought his decision. Again, there had been a downpour of rain the few days before and it was touch and go whether it would be on, but it was and I am very glad it was, because we had a blast!
March 2020
Okay so this is where the year took an interesting turn! I'm not going to talk about 'it' because you all know what I am talking about but essentially all of the races that were planned began to disappear before our eyes. And before we knew where we were our racing year was at an end.
But we are a resilient lot us runners, there is no way anything was going to stop us training and racing. We were plunged into a routine of not leaving our house other than for 1 hour of exercise or shopping a day. We couldn't get our haircut, or run with our Jog Scotland crew. The dilemma I had with the 1 hour a day exercise was that I had to walk Kobi and he had to be on the lead because at the beginning of March we weren't allowed to have dogs off the lead. I love Kobes to bits, but he is a strong wee boy and it was hard work running with him on the lead. So I decided to walk Kobi and run in the garden as I could do that for as long as I wanted whenever I wanted. And with that the Garden Ultra Marathon was born. 50 miles from March to May running up and down the garden. Not easy as the garden is quite small. But with lots of Jog Scotland support I finished the Ultra and then went onto run a full half marathon in one go, in the garden. That was a brilliant day, it was really hard work but worth it for the money we all raised for SAMH.
The last photograph was a socially distanced glass of fizz to celebrate (this was to become a theme of the year - fizzy celebrations! more on that to come).
May 2020
So despite that thing happening this year, so far so good, lots of running happened and lots of friendships. May in Penicuik usually means two things Penicuik Hunter and Lass and the Penicuik 10km. The Hunter and Lass celebrations never happened sadly but thanks to the Penicuik Harriers the Penicuik 10km was all marked out for a socially distanced event. So as long as you ran on your own and posted photos everyone was welcome to give it a go. Yvonne and Norrie went first and I ran behind socially distanced (not miles behind because I am slow 😆). It is a tough route and we ran it properly, putting everything into it. Really felt like a race.
June 2020
Moving onto June. For a year when races were officially cancelled or postponed suddenly my race calendar got very busy. The West Highland Way Race went virtual, offering us mere mortals the chance to complete the 95 miles from Milngavie to Fort William in 9 days. The catch was you had to reach certain checkpoints or you were out! That really put the pressure on and made it feel like a real challenge. It was absolutely brilliant, I had a blast.
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| The finish line - 95 miles! |
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| well earned t-shirt! |
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| As I said - new tradition! |
Before June was out we managed to do a cheeky wee 10km organised by Clare, one of the Jog Leaders from JS Penicuik. We were raising funds for Edinburgh Zoo and Clare set us one heck of a challenge with lots of tough hills and we learned all about animals along the way!
July 2020
After the fun of the Virtual West Highland Way Ultra I signed up for the Great Glen Way Ultra which was 75 miles in 7 days. this one felt tougher despite it being a shorter distance, the check points seemed to come around very fast but I had a blast finding new places to run and walk. Rhona even got me out my first ever corbet!
So after a great few months the wheels were about to come off my running wagon. Yvonne and I entered the Scurry to the Sea, an approximately 12 mile urban orienteering race (although this year it was a self directed sportif run) from Allermuir all the way down to Musselburgh. It was really great to be taking part in an event, albeit a very different one. Also great to catch up with Kate at the top of Allermuir.
However, my run was to end up a bit more of a walk! I had a bit of niggle in my leg but I thought it would be fine. Famous last words. Around 4 miles in it started getting worse, but because this was a socially distanced event there were no marshals so I just had to keep going. By the time I got to Musselburgh I could barely walk on it. Yvonne was amazing, she stayed with me the whole way (although she did say that was because she would get lost if she didn't 🤣). Norrie collected us on the beach at Fisherrow and we got chips and drank our celebratory wine - as this was the end of Yvonne's 150km challenge.
The wine kind of masked the pain a bit because by the following morning, I could barely walk! I called a taxi to take me to the hospital and look who turned up! Fellow jog leader Lyn.
I was worried I had fractured something in my leg but the doctor reassured me I had just pulled loads of muscles. Ended up with a groin strain, hamstring strain and over tight ITB. Lots of rehab walking took place for the next few months and eventually I got back to walking
September 2020
Had a great wee trip with Yvonne to take part in the Keswick Lakeland Trails 10km. Was really hard work but just amazing to be back moving again!
October 2020
It took me to October to really be running again, a very long slow progress. But I found an amazing physio who helped me work on all my injuries. To get going again I signed up for a 100 mile challenge called "I am the Storm" which felt kind of appropriate given the year we are having. It took me just 5 weeks to get to the 100 miles and it was a mixture of running and walking. But the key thing was it really helped me to keep moving while I did my physiotherapy exercises.
The first actual race I ran, again was virtual but it was the Amsterdam 8km. This had been my goal with the physio to get to a point where was running consistently, albeit slowly. So in keeping with the Amsterdam theme I ran with Mark along the Forth and Clyde canal to the Falkirk Wheel. It was blooming hard work but it felt really great to be running again.
Mark had been due to run the Gold Coast Marathon in Australia in the summer but obviously that never happened so when they sent him an email to say they were organising a virtual Halloween run I naturally joined him! However, we were unable to actually run it together because of the restrictions so I went for a run/walk up in Penicuik estate. Another 10km done, my leg was definitely getting better.
November 2020
Yvonne and I had entered the Helvellyn Lakeland Trails 10km in November however, yet another race cancelled. So rather than not do it we decided to create our own Pentland Lakeland Trails 10km. Yvonne had never run up Carnethy before so we left from the 'starting tree' in the Cornbank Park and headed off up towards Carnethy. It is a blooming big hill when you are looking at it from way down in Cornbank and I was a little bit apprehensive that my leg wouldn't take me all the way up there but we trotted off anyway.
It was a stunning day when we got up to the top and it was a fabby run, the weather could not have been more perfect.
Hot on the heels of that success Yvonne decided she would enter the Lakeland Trails Ultra 55km. Obviously it would be rude not to join her and what followed was an amazing few weeks of hill running (which has continued every weekend since). We ran in all weathers; sun, snow, wind, rain, sleet, ice, jaggy wee needles that weren't rain, sleet or snow and a LOT of mud. Exploring new trails with your pal is one of the best things in life! We had a lot of laughter, mainly at me falling down the hill a lot and Yvonne perfecting her penguin arms. A real antidote to the stresses of life just now.
The Ultra took us into December and we kept on running up the hills with a brilliant Christmas Eve run up Allermuir with Rhona too. It was absolutely freezing, windy and icy underfoot but as always we had a lot of fun. (Rhona looks utterly freezing in this photo).
So for the last day of 2020 Yvonne and I had planned a hill run but the weather took a turn and the hills were no where to be seen - under snow clouds! Instead we took ourselves into Clerks Estate and went for a snowy 10km trail run.
It was a fantastic way to end the year. And as has become the tradition we ended it with the usual O'Malley/Malcolm tradition!
So there you have it, a year of running in 2020, 853 miles, not bad considering all the restrictions and injury. My target had been 1000 miles but I think considering I will take 853! 2020 has been incredibly tough on everyone but you know what even in the dark times there is joy and thank goodness for running. It brings health, happiness and lots of lovely people into your life. So here's to 2021, and lots more adventures.
What have I learned this year? When life gets hard take to the hills, they are always there no matter what is happening in the world.
Things will get better
