Out of all animals in the animal kingdom, the snake is right up there in my least favourite animals section. I am scared of snakes as much as other people are afraid of spiders. So, it's not a surprise that 2013, the Year of the Snake, turned out to be a very mixed year for me.
Last year, the
Year of the Dragon, was a dream year as I flamed into life with big moves, assurance, passion and extreme ambitions..... and winning! But, flying high ultimately leads to come down and I spent most of this year crawling slowly on the ground, trying not to be swallowed up by the cracks.
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| 2013 - the Year of the Snake in the Chinese zodiac. |
2013 proved to be a very slippery surface right from the start. I got injured in January. I didn't set a single PB all year. I failed to strike that work-life balance, working crazy hours, often unreasonable. And, like a minister being dropped from certain portfolios due to incompetence, I got removed from nearly all of my mainstay projects, much to the disappointment of the project manager on those projects, the customer behind those projects and, to a certain extent, me. It was quite a bitter pill to swallow actually.
But with every challenge comes opportunity. And if there is an animal that knows how to be flexible, to patiently move around barriers without being deterred and to attack any opportunity aggressively and decisively, whenever necessary, then the snake ticks all the boxes. And I'm sure there will be plenty of newer opportunities in future and, like a snake, I have to be quick to grab them.
Now I'm not a horoscope follower, but how
did the Year of the Snake deliver opportunity in spite of those barriers that I had to slide around? Here's a countdown of my top ten of the year
2013.
Over the last 18 or so years of following the cricket, I've followed pretty much all the test series between England and Australia, from the dominance of Australia in the late 90s and early 2000s, to the resurgence of England from the mid-late 2000s to the middle of this year. But I never would've thought that I'd sit at Lord's and witness a crushing England victory in the
2nd test, allowing England to go 2-0 up in the series.
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| Day 4 and England take the field. |
I managed to get tickets for Day 4, and it was a case of hoping that the weather was good that day, or that the match would last long enough. And I got both, although Australia being bowled out for 128 in their first innings made me wonder whether the match would go that far. But, thanks to England not deciding to enforce the follow-on, the match dragged on to Day 4 and I managed to see both sides with the bat before Australia meekly crumbled on a turning wicket.
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| England go into a celebratory huddle after dismissing Australia for 235 at the end of Day 4. |
As of writing, Australia have exacted sweet revenge on a hapless England side, with the urn returning to Australian shores for the first time since 2007. They are now up 4-0 in the current series.
9: Running Berlin for the 4th time
The Berlin Marathon was the first international marathon I ran since arriving in the UK over 5 years ago. It's also one of the
World Marathon Majors, a truly big spectacle, comparable with the likes of London and New York. And it's also the fastest course in the world. Because of the above,
this article featuring my picture, and that I love Berlin as a city, I've got a soft spot for this event and I couldn't resist entering again.
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| The start of the Berlin Marathon. |
Of course, I entered before I got injured, which meant that all my grand plans and goals for Berlin went flying out the window. In fact, preparation for Berlin only consisted of around 8 weeks of training because I wasn't sure whether I would be able to make it to Berlin due to other reasons not related to running (see part 2 for a full explanation).
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| Paul, Dean and me in front of the Brandenburg Gate, the evening before race day. |
But, even though I ran my worst time at Berlin, I'm glad that I was able to make a 4th Berlin marathon, and I even managed to witness Wilson Kipsang break the world record in the marathon (I was there in Berlin in 2011 as well when Patrick Makau broke the world record).
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| Wilson Kipsang breaks the world record in the marathon. |
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| Dean, Paul and me outside the Reichstag building after completing our marathons. |
It's very likely that this will be my last Berlin Marathon, as with the increased demand of runners wanting to participate in high-profile events this has resulted in the Berlin marathon organisers introducing a ballot system to enter, making entry more difficult in future.
8: Endure 24
This was my introduction to running anything longer than 26.2 miles in a day, and I managed that ultramarathon effort with 6 x 5 miles of running over a 24 hour period.
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| My team of 5. |
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| Looking rather fresh on my 1st lap! |
Mind you, I did not train specifically for Endure 24, and considering my lack of running through injury I was pretty unfit going into this. So, obviously I struggled to keep the effort going for my team of 5, which saw us drop from 3rd place in the first half, to 6th place overnight!
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| Runners running through the night. |
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| My 6th lap proved to be my very last! Thankfully I wasn't required to do a 7th! |
Highlights included the beautiful weather, the group nearly setting fire to the club tent, the lack of sleep, camping out with good friends, eating and drinking my body weight worth of food and drink, the drunken banter by everyone in the group (I won't name names or actions), running in complete darkness at the mercy of your head torch and finding out that my masseuse was from
Paraparaumu at 1 a.m. in the morning.
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| Getting ready for lap 4 at 11 p.m.! |
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| So glad that it's over! The rest of the Reading Roadrunners rabble after Endure 24. |
Because of the festival atmosphere, it's been compared to Glastonbury and I would recommend this event to any runner of all abilities. I think next year, I'll run Endure 24 in an 8 person team to share the running load better and ensure that I enjoy the other aspects of the event, e.g. eating, drinking, socialising.
7: London Marathon
If this went the way I wanted it to go, it would've went straight to the
top 2 of this year. And I really wanted it to be higher than number 7 in this list, but unfortunately my uncharacteristically overzealous approach to preparation for London only served to backfire on me.
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| Approaching the Good For Age starting area before the start of the London Marathon. |
Still, to have the opportunity to run London, despite the poor showing, was great in itself and the experience and the atmosphere was second to none. Unfortunately, my poor preparation combined with my optimistic pacing strategy on the day bit me very hard, but those were the only negatives from an otherwise good day.
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| Reading Roadrunners in the Good For Age starting area before the London Marathon. |
It was also one week after the tragedy of the Boston Marathon bombings, and security was obviously a big talking point heading into this event, both for runners and spectators. The response from the London public was overwhelming. They lined the streets of the entire course supporting those who ran, showing the world that as a people we cannot be stopped and that the human spirit will never be broken. It was like running into a funnel of noise! In honour of the victims of Boston, runners were asked to wear black ribbons and observe a 30 second period of silence before the start.
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| My race number, club singlet and black ribbon. |
I have one more chance to redeem myself at next year's London Marathon, and this time I will be ready!
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| At mile 23 at the Reading Roadrunners marshal area, outside the Tower of London, in a whole heap of pain and discomfort. |
6: The year of Reading (and Woodley) parkrun
It's certainly
been an eventful year for parkrun with many indelible memories and a couple of
poignant moments. Thames Valley Park was stricken with mass flooding for the best part of the first three months, so for everyone who frequents Thames Valley Park every Saturday morning it was a welcome relief to be back running where it all began. Although, while Reading parkrun was out of action, I got my weekly parkrun fix from neighbouring Woodley parkrun, which is just as good and convenient for me.
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| AC and AC, Do the Mobot! |
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| Sprinting for the line! |
In a desire to give back to Reading parkrun because it has given so much to me, this year has seen me join the core volunteer team, and volunteering in various roles a lot more, from timekeeping, photography, run report writing and run directing. Volunteering is really rewarding and actually doesn't take a lot of my time. To see others benefit from parkrun is just as good as running for yourself.
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| Briefing first time runners at Reading parkrun. |
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| Run directing the Christmas themed parkrun, with one hand in my pocket! |
Highlights include our return to Thames Valley Park after 5 months away due to mass flooding, our 4th birthday, getting my 100 t-shirt and jacket after completing 100 parkruns, becoming a run director and being a part of the core volunteering team, the Christmas themed parkrun with so many runners meeting personal milestones, being a pacemaker for runners wanting to meet new time goals and meeting so many new people and like-minded runners.
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| Accepting a token of appreciation on Reading parkrun's 4th birthday event for being a core volunteer. |
To close, all of this would not be possible without
the efforts of the event directors and volunteering team, who bring
parkrun to everyone on every single Saturday morning, so a big THANK YOU
to all of you.
Stay tuned for part 2 in tomorrow's
post as I cover: PBs, the path to naturalisation and
pulling off qualification into the world's most prestigious marathon!
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