Harry's Year of Running: Epilogue

 

2020

2020 started with the Serpentine New Year’s Day 10k again. With the upped mileage at the end of the year I had struggled to get close to 19 minutes at Gunnersbury and wasn’t too hopeful. My watch didn’t lock on to the GPS, I forgot to start it on the gun, and then it told me I was doing 4:06 min/km. It looked like I wasn’t even going to beat 40 minutes, after averaging 38:47 for five 10k runs in 2019. However, I had Melissah Gobson in sight, so I suspected something was up. I got my time print out straight after I finished: 37:15 and big new PB.

Heading into the final km at the NYD 10k

This was shortly followed by the Middlesex Cross Country championships at Wormwood Scrubs. The Met League course has just two big laps, and I sprinted in at the end of the second lap, having done a reasonable 8k. I had emptied the tank, so when I realised there was another 4k lap to go, I almost stopped. However, after a slightly slower 400m of recovery, getting passed by the slightly bemused or amused runners I had just sprinted past, I found I could keep going. Not recommended as a pacing strategy, but I had learnt something about myself.

Tucked in on a windy Wormwood Scrubs for the Middlesex XC Champs

The next race was Met League at Alexandra Palace again. I set off cautiously for the first lap, not wanting to miscount and burn all my matches too early again, and just as I was starting the second lap my ankle rolled on something I hadn’t spotted in the mud. The pain was intense for next 200m, but I was hoping I could run it off.

Running injured at Ally Pally

I finished the race in some discomfort, and perhaps walking to the pub was a mistake. By the time I got home my ankle had ballooned up.

Oh dear

I thought the injury would end my chance of running the London Marathon, in April. But after a few weeks off, and then some careful running on flat ground, it looked like the break from running may actually have done me some good. I started putting in some decent runs around Hyde Park at lunchtime. After a tough second half in a windy Wokingham Half Marathon, in the Big Half at the beginning of March I managed a 1:22:50 only 30 seconds off a PB. The next week I PB’d at Gunnersbury Parkrun, and again the following week with an 18:24, though by this time it was clear that it would be the last Parkrun for some time, so I jogged home with unease rather than elation.

When we went into full lockdown, with the number of deaths rising daily, and the unsettling sight of supermarket shelves stripped bare, I made a point of going for a run each day to clear my mind when I would normally be commuting home. By the time April came around I had slipped into the habit running at least 10 miles every day. To minimise concerns about social distancing, I generally ran around the open spaces of Gunnersbury or the meadows East through to Osterley, Norwood and even Southall, alternating between fast paced runs and recovery runs on tired legs.

Not as easy as it looks

Running was a form of meditation, and I was also curious to how I my body would cope. By the end of the month it started to feel to like an obligation to keep the streak going, and well, I was just tired, so I gave my self a rest, but couldn’t resist getting over 500k for the month. With a bit of imagination there is always a new route to run, race to enter or goal or target to chase. There was no master plan, focusing on the process of training rather than a specific target time, a sort of running equivalent of zen archery.

My strava running heat map

In May I started cycling more as the streets were almost empty of traffic, and my daughter was happy to join me. Perhaps it was the irregularity of the running, but my right knee, which I had always strapped up due to a previous problem, started troubling me. In June I ran the two virtual summer league races, with total rest in between. However the pain in my right knee increased each time, and I almost pulled up lame on the last run, and in hindsight I should have. For the next couple of weeks stairs were painful. It was time to let myself heal and take a break from running and see if my left toenail would finally heal. In the meantime, I took to exploring the routes out West on my road bike, and trying to maintain some level of fitness. The 100 km rides trying to keep up with Graham left me shattered like I had raced a marathon.

Finally I’d like to thank all the eagles that made 2019 year of running so memorable. In particularly the Welsh Castles Relay and Round Norfolk Relay take a lot of organising – complicated schedules, accommodation, hiring vans, equipment and time keeping. All of this is mostly done by non-running volunteers with efficiency and good humour. I’d also like to thank all the volunteers who have paced, marshalled or otherwise helped in all the races I have run. Running is great for both physical and mental health, but it is the other people who make it so enjoyable. I've had a few tenative runs recentlys, and hopefully I will be back when we can at last run together again. I’ll be a bit slower, but no less enthusiastic. After such a great 2019, 2020 has been memorable for all the wrong reasons. Bring on 2021.

Happy running,

Harry