#UltraBoyRuns review 2013

It’s Christmas I hear you cry, it’s that time of year when the whole world kicks back and takes a bit of a break – well not if you are a runner. For me Christmas Day itself is being moved to Boxing Day because of the logistics involved and because my other half is on call that day and I see no sense in trying to have the traditional quiet day when I could be out running. So my festive morning will be spent motoring through the back roads of Kent before taking my new puppy on her first walk outside – exciting times, but enough about my festive plans there are a couple of more exciting things to talk about.

The first is a brief point, as some of you are aware I used to blog under a different name but gave up the blogging after I’d had some unpleasant experiences, in that time one of my very excellent running friends set up the UltraBoyRuns twitter account and also the UltraBoyRuns WordPress blog and for the first few posts he was blogging as me but after a little nudge and a promise that I would maintain a much lower profile I started contributing again, I’ve now taken over both accounts full time now as my very good friend tells me that he’s had enough of pretending to be me (all the superhero business was a bit much). I am in the process of setting up an archive of the older material as I hopefully made some useful points and interesting posts. Anyway basically I just wanted to say thanks for continuing to read my general witterings and it shall be full steam ahead into 2014 as I look to further improve on my race tally.

The second thing is my overview of 2013.

It’s been a really weird year of running – firstly because it didn’t properly get going until my first race of the year which was the White Cliffs 50 in March and finished rather suddenly at the Snowdonia Marathon in October and while there was a huge amount of training involved during the year it felt like a bit of a failure. I failed to run 3000miles, I failed to qualify for the UTMB, I failed to complete the TG100, I failed to put in a sub40 10k this year, I failed to get into the London Marathon. I felt like a year of failure if I look at it like that. However, there is a flip side. I did complete The Wall and the WC50 both in UTMB qualifying times, I did become an outdoor swimmer and complete both the Great North and Great London Swims, I did record another 3 marathon races and added more than 20 medals to my ever growing collection and I did earn enough qualifying points to make an attempt at qualifying for the CCC, the little sister of the UTMB.

It has also been a year of injuries, there was a broken foot, there have been general feet problems, plantar fasciitis, ITB problems of epic proportions and now an ongoing hip and lower back problem – some of which has been caused by over training and continuing to train while I have been injured.

My favourite medal of the year was the Kent Roadrunner Marathon and my favourite race was probably too difficult to choose but The Great North Swim was amazing and so was Rat Races Trailblazer but for sheer determination it would have been the White Cliffs 50. There is something about crossing the line after 54 official miles and nearly 60 not so official miles with a broken foot  having just sprinted the last kilometre in your Vibram FiveFingers

Next year is a year of ultra marathoning and very little else (well maybe a triathlon and a few other smaller bits) but I’m hoping that I’ve learnt from my 2013 experiences and will use these to power myself forward. My new found love of cycling and swimming will surely only enhance my prospects of keeping middle age at bay and there is a positive feeling in the air that next year might be my year.

Good luck for 2014 runners and keep running, keep blogging.