It’s no secret it’s been a sh!te year for us, so I couldn’t face a ‘review of the year’ type blog – just a peek at each of the last 12 months……
January – bbbbrrrr – Nicky and I ran a few early morning Dartmoor runs, getting in some hilly road work as we aimed for the 2 Oceans marathon. Nicky’s calf injury scuppered those plans but we enjoyed our breakfasts on Dartmoor nonetheless.
February – It snowed. Quite dramatically! Whilst the trusty Micra couldn’t cope, we managed to get out for some crunchy, wet footed running action.
March – It snowed. Quite dramatically! Again! I was back up to 6′ standing on it though. The contrast when we got to South Africa later in the month was quite a shock.
April – We had the opportunity to go to Cape Town for 10 days and whilst the 2 Oceans marathon was amazing, the rest of the trip was just packed with jaw dropping, WOW moments – Table Mountain is a remarkable, humbling place.
May – I feel so blessed to have my beautiful wife, amazing step daughters and, of course, the three grandchildren. It’s been a tough, tough year for our family, but there’s always little Ollie to brighten up the day.
June – Nicky conquered her Cotswold 113 half iron distance triathlon in June. She has put so much work into her open water swimming – I put quite a lot of work into sitting on the sea wall watching her clothes as she trained, scribbling a few musings whilst I was there.
July – As we battled through the year it was so lovely to get these mornings out – the Otter Rail and River 10k is a cracking trail race. We took a deep breath in the sun…..
August – Regular blog followers will already know that Nicky and I both love a good book. This was a particularly good find. Ross Raisin’s portrayal of a promising young footballer and his battle with his sexuality is a gripping piece of literature. Sometimes pacy, sometimes awkward, always intriguing, we both rattled through it.
September – As I try and convince myself that I AM A WRITER, I found this piece of advice from Writers HQ to be the kick up the arse I needed!
October – There’s no dressing it up, October was shit. Coming home from work and sharing a cup of tea with Ollie outside his garden house always seems to help!
November – Coming home from work to this amazing present from my completely amazing (and gorgeous) lady wife Nicky was a delight. I’ve devoured the Mandela book – er, WOW (a review to follow so I won’t say too much) and I’m half way through the absorbing Obama book.
December – The year was exhausting, we were so grateful to get to Jamaica and compete in the Reggae 10k – We sunned ourselves, read 14 books between us and prepared ourselves for the life ahead.
We ventured deep into the South Hams on Saturday afternoon to tackle Pure Trails’ twilight adventure event, Race The Light. The forecast wild weather earlier in the day duly arrived.
We know it rained hard in the morning. We volunteered at Parkrun. The Torbay Velopark Parkrun attendees are a hardy bunch, usually numbering around 250. Well 103 braved the apocalyptic deluge and our lovely run group at Keywood Running pitched in with 10 of the volunteers for the day. We were ready for our hearty breakfast afterwards.
Arriving home, my beautiful wife, Nicky, and I de-robed from our soaking gear and built a roaring fire. As we steamed and warmed, the thought of venturing out again for another soaking was becoming less and less inviting.
After our good friend and blog regular, Martin (The Silver Fox, not ‘a’ silver fox, but THE Silver Fox), arrived to collect us, we duly goaded each other until we climbed into the rather clean interior of his foxmobile and headed for mudsville.
The Silver Fox looking unconcerned about his leather seats
Nicky and I were both thinking we’d be trashing the plush leather seats after the forthcoming mud bath.
We weren’t wrong.
As one of the marshals, Iain, later commented on social media ‘It’s a great day when runners, marshalls and everyone can pull together… magic to see you all’
He was stood in the raging River Erme as we crossed it in the light on the way out. He was still stood in it some hour and a half later as we made our way back across in the dark. It did feel like such a team effort – there were race winners but the afternoon and evening were about so much more than that.
Race Briefing – ‘look after each other’
We’d felt the same at Parkrun that morning – as we handed the finish tokens to the drenched runners there was a real sense of having survived together. Our Monday run group had pulled together to help swell the volunteer numbers. (Expect a big blog soon all about Keywood Running, ’tis a fine thing.)
Yes Saturday was about everything that’s GOOD in running…. in life in fact. Such a warm feeling when we’re all looking out for each other.
The race directors at Pure Trail, Steve and Mark, seek out something different with all of their events and this really was different. A combination of the morning’s rainfall making its way down from the hills and moors and a wild wind holding the tide up meant the water, which should have been a trickle, was quite forceful.
People stuck together and toughed it out before enjoying a beautiful woodland out and back course alongside the estuary. The speedy boys and girls made it back before serious darkness fell whilst some of us got our money’s worth……..
The Silver Fox – a rare picture of an elite athlete in full flow
And then we toughed out the crossing back across and trudged up the hill to the finish.
I guess the crew were there for some time after we had headed home for the final of Strictly in the dark, wind and rain dismantling the course. We are truly grateful to all of them – it was a fine day in the local running community.
Do check out Pure Trail‘s events, they never disappoint.
And if you enjoy the blog, have a delve through previous posts, particularly from the sister event Race The Tide.
And if the South West Coast Path is tempting, have a read of my review of The Salt Path by Raynor Winn, an astonishing book.
Thank you to anyone who has made it to the end of the blog and thank you to all you for your patience in waiting these last few months for this post.
2019 begins with fresh starts, fresh challenges and a chance to recover from the grief of 2018. I know I occasionally over step the mark with how ‘personal’ I make the blog but I do wear my heart on the page……..
Looking forward to writing about my amazing, inspiring, determined and beautiful lady wife and our adventures together throughout the coming year.
Packing Our Trunks 