Image from Flickr (Bengt Nyman)

For a long time now I have pushed my self to run further, faster and harder; this year has been the pinnacle of that with some of my heaviest running months and one of my lowest. Resulting in running over 1000miles in a year, an enormous unplanned achievement. But being plagued by persistent injuries of many varieties, I pushed on and didn’t listen to the needs of my body. Hoping and praying, that it wasn’t serious. Amazingly I have survived through, but as the year comes to a close, I’m doing a conservative Advent Running period and slowing down to enjoy time with my dog, Pixel.

After running (and walking) Lisbon marathon I came back with an aim to do Pisa marathon just two months later to be confident in saying I had run a marathon this year. It is incredible how psychologically I had convinced myself that this was my aim for the year and I would push myself to achieve it. But a terrible tumble pushed my multiple times already injured ankle over the top.

A month off, scheduled physiotherapy and taking recovery very slow, I’m carefully getting back into running. But on reflection over the year I can see the clear mistakes I have made. I’m not a professional runner, it is a hobby, marathons are great goals but times are not. My best runs in training were when I wore the GPS watch but actively avoided looking at it. Over 20miles and not caring about pace is lovely especially when you are running down the coast of Italy.

So the plan for next year is to do smaller more frequent goals, recovery permitting. To stop running to a time and to start running to explore and with the awesome people of the running community. It seems a little early to set goals for next year, but a month off running has given me a lot to reflect on.

Run wise!

As I continue my crazy running activities I take another shot at the Relish Run Cheddar Gorge half marathon. A great route that takes you up over the hills surrounding Cheddar and past the trig point with views over Weston-super-Mare, my home town.

So this is a hard run and this years challenge was water, to note last years was sun. So I've tried this course into polar conditions (for the UK), it seems that water is more challenging. This was not aided by me getting lost and taking another guy with me.

Well another year another race attempt, hoping for better next year!

The San Francisco Marathon

I've been running for a few years now, doing as many runs as I can a year. Granted my training routine isn't very vigorous, but just doing the run is great fun. After attending SIGGRAPH this year, I passed through San Francisco on my drive up the coast. As any avid runner would, if there a race you can do you do. So I ran the San Francisco Second Half Marathon!

I wish I could say this went well, but this is a challenging route, but was so good to run. I hope in future I can come back and do the marathon in full, one of the unique things about this marathon it isn't just two laps of the half. Therefore by doing the marathon you get great views of the golden gate bridge and through the centre of the city.

Recently I completed a 10k fun run in my home town. The event was in aid of Weston Hospice care, I don’t have any direct relation with it is a good cause to support so raised a little money and went along to get covered in sand. I am not a seasoned runner, but I run in my spare time to keep me a little sane (results not guaranteed). So after 59minutes ish (the event wasn’t timed) of wading through sand/mud I looked like this:

Although not the most flattering of picture was a great fun experience. I hope to drag others along next year!

Stuart James  …