The Journey so far ..

14th September Purbeck Marathon

Stayed overnight in my Camper in Swanage, beautiful morning and venue, race was really enjoyable until the last 5 miles when cramp set in and I had to run walk the last 3 miles - top priority to fix this..

Love the Purbecks, looking forward to Dorset CTS running the western end.

Speedo Open Water training week 24th September -> Cross training in Lanzarote

Before the tragic event at the end of the summer I had planned to enter a triathlon with James in 2015; my weakness was the swimming phase, only able to struggle though 200 metres - at the end the excellent course was able to complete the half ironman course within the time.

Dan Bullock (swimfortri.com)was a fantastic coach, working miracles with all of us, great crowd to train with...

5th October - Bournemouth Half Marathon

Stayed overnight in Murv (my Camper), fantastic view from the carpark behind the conference centre; nearly uprooted by the warden, despite paying an overnight fee, apparently not supposed to say overnight in Bournemouth carparks (no notices) due to complaints from the residents about ladies of the night, compromised by extinguishing all lights..

Missed the bus to the start due to a misunderstanding, entertaining time running though all the fancy dress runners not a good plan, a sprint start, painful finish inevitable, at least I was wearing my shades..

12th October - more cross training, Wiggle 100 mile New Forest (cycling) Sportive

Thought that the New Forest was flat until I road it on my bike. Finished in 'Bronze' time without incident until I crossed the finish line, a cyclist stopped suddenly in front of me, forgot to unclip my shoes and fell embarrassingly sideways - uninjured as so tired..

Enjoyed The Stickler (Dorset's 3 Peak challenge) and Cross Country in Queen Elizabeth Country Park with my club Stubbington Green RAC in November

30th November travelled to Spain to race the San Sebastian Marathon

With my second claim club Barking Road Runners. Achieved a personal best on the flat road course, smoothed out by my newly acquired Hoka Cliftons. Great weekend including a trip to the spar afterwards and a post race recovery run along the bay....

6th December (the next weekend) ran the Dorset endurancelife CTS marathon from Lulworth Cove

Seemed a good idea as a 'back to back' training run however it is described as 'exteme' and lived up to it's reputation with multiple brutal climbs and descents along the coast. At least I finished with no cramps and able to run at the end (thanks to a few changes in my training and nutrition strategy).

Weekly interval training, Parkruns and twice weekly Pilates classes continued, with a short break over Christmas

17th January travelled to Anglesea to run the CTS marathon.

Rugged scenery in the Northwest of the island where the race started and finished with a 300ft scramble up and down Hollywell rock - good hiking practice..