Farewell 2020

Glad to see the back of that one, it has to be said. A year of up and downs in ways that were simply inconceivable twelve months ago, best illustrated in my Strava graph for the year.

Rather frustratingly, the start was fantastic: a muddy night race in the Forest of Dean, more muddy night runs with friends, and a fabulous run along the coastal path being just three of the highlights. But in the background this new word kept cropping up in conversation: coronavirus. As we moved into February and early March it went from occasional mention to only topic of conversation, then suddenly one of the boys was sent home from school with a cough and that was it, we were in isolation for two weeks. Within days of that happening the national lockdown began, and our world changed and shrank around us.

I’ve talked before about how running in lockdown changed my understanding of the running community around me, but it also changed how I ran. Running for sanity wasn’t new, but now there was nothing to be gained by doing my old 5k routes, even if I’d smashed by old PB (I didn’t!). Running was about escaping, escaping those same four walls, escaping the city and the walking routes we used nearly every day. And so that meant distance. For months I barely did a run under 8 miles, and if I did one, it had to be hilly. In the back of my mind I wanted to be prepared for my weekend with Girls on Hills, but these runs were also, as lockdown eased a little, my way to socialise, and I thrived on them. I even managed a run with my brother during the summer, a rare treat indeed.

It wasn’t all good. For all that I loved my weekend in Eryri, it was just that, two days. All those runs I had looked forward to in the Brecon Beacons and the Valleys had vanished, along with everyone else’s plans for 2020. Every time I thought it was safe to look ahead something came along to bite me – local lockdowns, firebreaks, then finally injury, putting paid to the entirety of the autumn.

So it is with some trepidation that I say roll on 2021. We’re still in a lockdown, my leg still hurts, there is a very long way to go. But there is hope, personally, nationally and globally. It won’t be quick, but we have the promise of vaccines to bring us back together again, and I’m starting to believe that my leg really will be healed and back to full strength this spring. 2020 brought the most incredible challenges, but we’re still here, and still running forward into 2021.

There’s the small matter of a 40 mile race in June too . . .