2020 - That was the year that wasn't.

Around this time of year I normally look back over the year just gone and try and preview a bit the one to come, but as we all know it's been a funny sort of year. Eight races that I had entered during the 2020 got either cancelled, postponed, or rearranged to a date that I couldn't make. I'm sure many other people had similar experiences. Disappointing but as runners we can always find some sort of way of getting out of the door if we're persistent; the guys who I really feel for are the race organisers who often moved heaven and earth to get their events on, usually to no avail and at a lot of personal cost, both financial and emotional. I hope as many as possible of them manage to survive to better times, we really need them.

But I did manage to get a few things done.

In early February, when Covid was just something happening elsewhere, we had more normal winter issues at the 43 mile Brecon to Cardiff Ultra. Storm Ciara was forcing the cancellation of events all over trhe country but the brave crew in South Wales held on and we were rewarded with a very windy, extremely wet but ultimately satisfying day out, which I finished in 9:29:48, nearly an hour slower than when I had last done the event two years earlier, but in the conditions that seemed good enough. A week later the event would not have been possible because the whole valley had by then flooded to dramatic levels forcing a lot of home evacuations.

Nearly a month later on the first day of March, it was a cold but crisp and sunny day for Beyond Marathon's 42 Mile Millenium Way. From Newport to Burton-on-Trent this was an easy and enjoyable day trip for me from Chester. It still had it's share of submerged riverside paths and a couple of miles of shin-deep mud at one point, but I managed to finish in 8:45:48.

Then came lockdown of course and I spent weeks running round my local lanes. Even the local Delamere Forest was closed.  During this period we saw the start of the "virtual" event, where competitors are invited to complete the the mileage involved in the cancelled real one but at a location they can access, usually over a defined time period. I didn't really see the point to start with but then the West Highland Way version arrived. Before the Covid thing I had a sort of plan to enter the West Highland Way in 2021 and make it my 100th ultra; it was where it all started for me back in 2007 and I had been involved almost every year until recently.  My plan wasn't going to work now, the 2021 race would be full of entrants rolled over from 2020 and it was very unlikely that I would find enough events still running to get me to 100 by June 2021 anyway. So I joined the 2020 virtual event just to stay in touch. We had from 11th to 21st June to rack up the required 95 miles, but I decided that if I was going to go virtual I wanted to make my experience as close to the real thing as I could. Our local forest and the Sandstone Trail were accessible again by June; I couldn't sensibly arrange back-up for a continuous push, and local opinion would still have frowned on being out through the night, so I went for three consecutive days and arranged my route so that my total ascent would match that of the real race. It worked out as:

Monday 12th:        36.0 miles  4800ft ascent  8:23:50

Tuesday 13th:         27.0 miles  5800ft ascent  7:37:10

Wednesday 14th:     32.0 miles  4700ft ascent  7:25:38

Totals:                       95 miles   15,300ft ascent  23:26:38

It was very hot weather at the time, with thunderstorms each evening, but I actually enjoyed the experience quite a lot, even though some tracks and ascents had to be covered many times. Clearly the time out each night made a huge difference, but it was still nice to get a sub 24 hour West Highland Way  -  many years since I last achieved that!

We were able to get back to the Lakes again in July, which allowed me to enter my second virtual event, the Lakeland 50. I originally thought I might do this on the actual course, but on reflection I wasn't too keen on using public transport to get to the start and finish (I am after all in a "vulnerable" group!) so I constructed a 50 mile route based on our place in Keswick. It was a bit short on height gain compared with the real route but a bit tougher under foot so I guessed about the same sort of challenge. I completed my route in 14:47:38 and had the bonus of meeting Lakeland organiser "Uncle Terry" Gilpin, out for a walk with his grandsons, as I descended Far Easedale.

Some races had started to get going again by August but the one I had entered, the GB Ultras "Race Across Scotland" wouldn't work, I guess because of its proposed use of many village halls and the understandable reluctance of the communities it would have passed through. Looking around for something to focus on, I decided to have a shot at the Abraham's Tea Round which seemed to be gaining some popularity and was right on my doorstep, with the start and finish of the round at George Fishers in Keswick. It's not a long trip at just over 30 miles, but the 11,000ft of ascent and the steep ascents/descents in some places are well felt. I was hoping to get under 12 hours but on the day could only manage 12:34:49   -  I guess a return match is probably called for. Maybe I was short of climbing for the year.

Organised events resumed for me at two Beyond Marathon races in September.  The Gritstone Grind follows the 35 mile Gritstone Trail in East Cheshire. I'm surprised I wasn't more aware of this trail before, it's far more attractive than the Sandstone Trail on my doorstep in the west (but also with double the climbing!).  I finished in 7:52:36 which I was fairly happy with, even though my son John with whom I'd shared a car to the start managed to get it done in under 6 hours.

A week later the White Horse 50 took me to an area I'd never visited before, the downs around Marlborough in Wiltshire. It's gentle, easy countryside, attractive in a wide open spaces sort of way, sparsely populated. There was only just over 4000ft of climbing on the whole course, still, I'm happy to get inside 12 hours for any 50 miler these days so was satisfied with 11:37:39.

Sterner stuff a month later with the Hardmoors 55, rescheduled from March, my eighth time on this particular run. Warmer weather than at the normal time of year for the race, but still with the expected ration of wind, rain and mud. 15:17:06 was half an hour faster than last year for me but still nothing to write home about. I had the feeling that as the year went on I was losing ground a bit.

After this, all the events I had planned got binned in the second and subsequent lockdowns. Virtual events started springing up again aplenty but I wasn't sure this was the best use of this bit of my life. I decided that if I wanted to make a better fist of next year than I had this then just chasing a lot of slow miles wasn't the way to go.

After a bit of thought I signed up with coach Dave Troman, a friend who I have known for quite a few years, in the hope that I can hopefully slow down my decline and maybe even make some marginal gains, with a main target of completing the Hardmoors 110 at the end of May. Just over two months into my training programme I'm really enjoying the change and the discipline, so more enthusiastic about the future than I was in the Autumn.

Just to tie up the statistics, I ran a total of 1983 miles in the year which is fairly typical for the past few years. I climbed a total of 174,000ft, which is way down; in recent years I have normally ascended around 100,000ft more than this, whether this affected my performance in the hillier events like Abrahams Tea Round and the HM55 I don't know, but it won't have helped. For the third year running I also failed to "run the year" (ie 2020 miles in 2020), although I'm really not concerned about this. I could have made up the miles needed easily but made my decision to go for quality over quantity when I started with Dave and I'm more than happy with that.

So what about next year?

Well as I said earlier my main target is to complete the Hardmoors 110 at the end of May. It's the only one of the classic "hilly" 100's that I should be able to do (the UTS is alas now way beyond me I suspect) and yet have never got around to. Ten or even five years ago I would have felt completion was not an issue, I would have been more interested in getting some sort of time that I considered respectable, but nowadays it's very much on my limit. It's five or six miles further than the Lakeland 100, with almost exactly the same amount of total climb; better ground under foot but four hours less to get round. What it doesn't have though is the Lakeland's "look after you at every step" checkpoints every few miles. Only two indoor checkpoints with hot drinks at around 20 and 70 miles (and since Covid, not even these), otherwise cold water and a few sweeties in between is all you get. This is because it is designed as an event where most competitors will have a support crew, and to gain admission to run unsupported you have to have some sort of proven pedigree. I have tried it once before, unsupported, in 2019. Carrying enough food to make progress possible and enough kit to cover both the roasting sun and driving overnight rain we experienced during the event, I ran out of time after about 80 miles. You don't start any event believing you will fail, but those where it is a distinct possibility definitely have more spice than those where you know you will finish, so I can't resist another go. With a bit more focussed training and (hopefully) a support crew I should be able to make a better showing this time.

In discussion with Dave T I've tried to plan other events earlier in the year to support rather than conflict with this main goal. A long time ago I had entered Lady Anne's Way which this was due to go on 30th of January. It wasn't an ideal interruption to the plan, but I was still enthusiastic about the event and had decided to go and treat it as  a longish walk to minimise the effect.  It's now been understandably cancelled and I have no idea yet when/if it will be re-run so I'll deal with that when we know more.

At the end of February I'm planning to run the Northumberland Coast Ultra. This is a short (35 miles) flat event which I have run before. It's a beautiful coast and the run fits well with development towards the Hardmoors.  The organisers Endurancelife always base their events on lightweight outdoor checkpoints with very little faff and have managed to keep a lot of them going through last year, so I'm pretty hopeful that this one will go ahead.

I was a bit regretful not entering the Hardmoors 55, it's one of my favourite events and I do hope to complete 10 of them before I get too old, but a tough event at the end of March didn't really fit the plan.

Then at the end of April I'm entered into the Open Adventure Lakes Traverse. This is a 60 miler which takes arguably a lot of the best parts of the Northern Traverse, run concurrently and which I really enjoyed back in 2016. I will take it at a reasonably comfortable pace, and as well as enjoying a great event in (hopefully) some improving weather for the year, I will get a good "time on feet" day about six weeks out from the Hardmoors.

Beyond May I haven't planned so rigorously, I'm waiting to see how the first half of the year turns out!

I have a deferred entry in the Lakeland 50 which I will definitely do at the end of July, and also one in the Race Across Snowdonia a couple of weeks earlier. I'm really enthusiastic about the latter event, it's a sort of two day version of the Dragon's Back and definitely due to become a classic if Mike Jones at Apex can get the first one or two off the ground, but it may be just an event too far for me this year, I'll judge nearer the time.

One I definitely don't want to miss though is Deadwater in late August. I did this when it was last run three years ago and it was overall one of my best experiences in ultra races.

Other deferred entries are the Lakes in a Day in October and Tour de Helvellyn in December, and I also have a voucher for a GB ultras event at some point. And I still have to get the Joss Naylor Challenge done at some point. Covid permitting, looks like a good enough year ahead.