2012 - the year ahead

So 2011 is well and truly over. I enjoyed a great New Year weekend with Rosie and Martyn and spent the last day of the year exploring the beautiful Dorset coast on foot, and the first day of 2012 mountain biking in some pretty challenging conditions!! 2011 has been a good one - not as many PBs as the previous year, but did manage to get my half marathon time down to 1hr33, and in the meantime got to visit another of the Outer Hebrides islands, this time in the form of the Isle of Lewis. One of the highlights of the year has to be my week of trekking in the Julian Alps in Slovenia. What a fantastic country and amazing hiking to be done. Has left me wanting to explore more of Eastern Europe. Another highlight was the Avebury - Stone Henge 26 mile trek I did with my Dad to raise money for Help for Heroes in the summer. The furthest my Dad had ever walked and a great achievement, especially in the hot conditions we had that day!

So, here I am in 2012 and I have some exciting challenges and adventures for the coming year. On 22nd December last year, I was lucky enough to win a Corstorphine AAC 'club entry' place for the London Marathon, along with Jillian Hogg. Many other CAACers have also got an entry due to having a 'good for age' or 'championship' place. So on April 22nd I will be on the start line of the London marathon and I can't wait! I'm following a 16-week training plan which started last Monday - week 1 almost done and so far so good. A long way to go though! I will be running not only for Corstorphine AAC, but also for the charity Pancreatic Cancer UK, and I will post further details of this soon. So in the meantime, I have the following plans in the coming year....

January 29th - Marrakech Half Marathon, Morocco
Susan and I are heading to Africa for a bit of a warm weather race. I will be doing the half and Susan the full marathon. Training for this is going well. No idea how the temperature will affect our running, but looking forward to a very exciting race in very different surroundings.

February 12th - Portsmouth Half Marathon
Two weeks later I'll be heading back to my home city to give the Portsmouth half marathon a go. I originally thought this might be a fast course seeing as it is flat along the coast, but have since found out part of the race is along the shingle beach. Looking forward to it though, and support from family, friends and previous training buddies will be great!

March 11th -18th - Snow shoe trek, Southern Alps, France
My legs will have a rest from running this week, and I will swap my trainer for snow shoes. Heading to the Southern Alps in France with Alison to trek hut to hut across some beautiful Alpine mountains! Haven't tried snow shoeing before! Should be great fun!

March 31st - Coniston 14
I have long wanted to give this race a go, so have decided that this is the year. Along with a few fellow runners I will be heading to the Lake District to do this scenic run.

April 22nd - London Marathon
The big day!!

16th September - Spire to Spire Trek
Last year it was 26 miles to Stone Henge to raise money for Help for Heroes, this year, my Dad and I will be walking 26 miles from Winchester Cathedral to Salisbury Cathedral. Another great challenge and a chance to explore another part of the UK. Being in September, it hopefully won't be as hot as last year's walk!




In between these I hope to have some great training runs and other smaller local races. Here's to a great 2012 and best of luck to everyone in their dreams for this year, whatever they may be! Watch out 2012 - I'm coming to get you!!