2020 what a year

Well we are at the end of 2020 and it has been a hell of a year. Whilst it has been tough and we have had to fundamentally change how we go about our daily lives, we have overcome every challenge. I want to finish the year off by reflecting on what I was able to do during 2020 rather than what I couldn't do.... it's all about perspective 

January 

I was lucky enough to be the parkrun run director on the 1st Jan, which was the day that Hanley parkrun achieved a new finishers record of 507, with our tail walker finishing in 54:16, we have just enough time to pack everything away and shoot off to Newcastle "the Wammy parkrun", also reported their highest number of finishers at 674 (it is very flat you know).  Finally got my new turbo trainer set up in the dining room and started pedalling.  We
celebrated my birthday at the Manchester Beer and Wine Festival and with a night out in Manchester to boot. 

February 

Was about running and working, I had started a new contract with Staffordshire and Stoke CCGs, it was lovely catching up with old colleagues and meeting my new colleagues. We had a baby shower for Emily, it was lovely to see the girls again and we managed to keep it a secret and Emily was truly surprised. The planets aligned and parkrun day also fell on the 29th February, so I proposed to Sean... we take this opportunity to run on this momentous day.

March 

I made a last minute decision to run Stafford half, as there was a couple of running buddies already signed up and I thought why not, its not a bad course and there was no pressure on time. I'm still not a fan of the race finishers t-shirts but do love a good medal! I dug out my sewing machine and started to make my own masks and we moved the trainer from the dining room into the garage, which meant we could have our first ladies lunch. We celebrated Sean's birthday and welcome baby Mia to our group.

April - May

My role changed slightly to support the local COVID response, which was both really challenging but very rewarding to feel I was making a small difference. The weather was lovely warm sunny and blue-skied days, which meant a lot of the jobs in the garden could get done and running in the Sun is always fun. Sean found a novel way to stop his bike and in the process also required a trip to the walk-in centre and now needs a new bike 🤦🏻‍♀️ 

The sun was still shining, the skies still blue and we celebrated VE Day with our neighbours in a socially distance fashion, which was lovely. parkrun bingo was a thing and I did it! I took advantage of the lovely weather, our new sail and moved to outside working briefly... It was too hot and the laptop couldn't take. 

June - July - August 

These were a bit of blur, but the weather was still fantastic and we were getting plenty of use out of our lovely new back garden and enjoyed soaking up the sun. Trying out new recipes and finally getting a hair cut!! I got to meet Mia and Emily, Jen and Liz in the park, which was lovely to see their faces in person.  We also took a long walk around Bakewell!!

Sept-Oct- Nov

We brought a campervan and managed to get a week away touring around the Lakes, Carlisle and Scarborough and getting to know the latest member of our family, Vincent!  We also got another week away in October down to Devizes, the weather had finally turned and October was rather damp and a little chilly.  We brought a fantastic awing for Vincent, which was nice and roomy and although larger it was much easier to put up and they're no more disagreements.  We visited Bournemouth, Bristol and Bath, out of the three I much preferred Bath. In November we took Vincent out for another trip this time it was only 

Dec

Well December and the holiday season has been quiet, but I have managed to smash my 2020 running and cycling goal. I'm not going to lie training has not been fun this last could of months, my mojo has taken a bit of nose dive. This year I decided to run up to Christmas Day and I even got to run a couple of these with Sean when he let me.  Christmas was quiet, with two zoom calls with both families, which was nice and might be the future!  

Anyway I have had a blast, it might not have been the year I would have chosen, but it is the year we got dealt and I played my part, not only as part of the local COVID efforts but also by keeping my distance and washing my hands at every opportunity!  

Here's looking to a much improved 2021

FOMO? Oh No!

So we are in the month of February (just) and all my running buddies are clocking up the miles, the long mile runs are getting longer and I'm in a reflective mood thinking about last year when that was me and I can't help wonder if I'm suffering a little bit of Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO)? 

But as my "long" run of 10 miles loomed yesterday and the snow, sleet, rain and wind battered my window I decided that NO, there was definitely no FOMO. There was even some bargaining with myself that, as next a half marathon was not until May my run could even be shorter, as there was no 'real' reason to run 10 miles!! 

The miles ticked by, the weather was still deciding between snow, rain, sleet or all three and then the turning point loomed on my run, I could either turn for home (with 7 miles in the bank) or carry on and get the 10 ticked off... Being type A,  already being wet and cold, I thought how bad could it be!! 

10miles later, with the help of a great audiobook the 8th instalment of the Peter Grant series and quite smug of my multitasking by ticking another book of my 20 books in 2020 challenge,  I was back shivering at my front door dripping all over the mat and looking forward to a hot, steamy shower and a nice cup of tea! 

Finally, I thought it would be a good opportunity to update on how my Dad is doing for anyone who has either followed by rambling for the last year or had the pleasure (cough) of running with me in the last couple of yeats will have known that my dad was diagnosed by with Bowel Cancer in late 2018. He went through very tortuous treatment with enduring both radiation and chemotherapy, which was why I decided to run Edinburgh marathon last year to help fundraise for Bowel Cancer UK. 

His initial scans after the treatment were encouraging and he was put on a watchful waiting list; this means scans every 3 months to ensure that cancer remained in remission. 18 months on Dad is star patient, he remains cancer free and back to his usual fit, healthy and of course annoying self and we would not want him any other way!! 

Both him and mum are looking forward to the weather picking up a little so they can get back in the van and touring around the UK and Europe chasing the better weather. 

Thanks for turning in to my ramblings

2020 Books

This year, one of my challenges is to read more.  Growing up I always had my nose in a book, my love of reading was discovered was when I brought a secondhand Jackie Collins novel; Hollywood Wives I think it was. We were on a camping holiday, I was around 13/14, I can't quite remember where but we happen across a flea market and looking through a books stall the glossy front cover attracted my eye and on reading the opening page the book was for me! 

Elaine Conti awoke in her luxurious bed in her luxurious Beverly Hills mansion, pressed a button to open the electrically controlled drapes, and was confronted by the sight of a young man clad in a white T-shirt and dirty jeans pissing a perfect arc into her mosaic-tiled swimming pool.

Apparently, I spent the rest of the holiday with my nose in that book from walking down the street, at the dinner table, in the car car and by the pool!

From that moment on I've always been a fan of trashy novels, romcom, crime fiction and the odd autobiography, most of all I mainly like read novels with a strong female lead. In the past, I would devour books at a rapid rate, then my days got filled with other stuff like work, study, TV and running, which meant  the reading took a backseat.

Whilst physically reading books stopped when I took up running, I became a fan of audiobooks and found a new way to get my fiction fix; as the miles flew by so did the books. Many blissful miles have been run,  thanks to Stephen Fry I read (listened) to all the Harry Potter books, then there was The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy, a number of Daniele Steeles, The Long Run, and the Peter Grant series by Ben Aaronovitch....a full list of my audiobooks can be found here....but I soon found that I needed to mix up my listening material and started to mix up the audiobooks with music and many podcasts, slowly the books fell away and it as mainly music and podcasts. 

Then the number of books listened to reduced, the number of podcasts increased and the only time for books was on holiday and boy did I get through them!! With the advent of the Kindle, it made not only transporting books but getting books instantly much easier, but the beauty of going to a physical book shop is that you see interesting covers of other books, as you pass by. In the early days of Kindle you only really got information on the authors you had read previously, hence there could be long gaps before a new title was released and my holidays coming around again! 

In late 2019 I was spending too long on my phone, scrolling through Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, once bored with those I would start playing candy crush or spider solitaire and loose hours of my day and my kindle app was gathering techy dust!!

I made a decision to read more, after blowing the dust from my kindle app (trying desperately to remember my password!), I  realised that there were a couple of books that were purchased back in March that had not read yet, their purchase most have coincided with our return from holiday! 

So like most good training plans, it's about creating a good habit, late last year I committed to reading a chapter of each book before going to bed each night and asked Twitter to recommend some books for me to have qued up for 2020.  

My 2020 challenge is live, I have deleted both Candy Crush and Spider solitaire and aim to read at least 20 books in 2020.  If you have a book you think I would like, then drop me a tweet or comment on this post and I'll add it to the list, another aim along with reading the books is to broaden my tastest into other area and genre. To keep everyone updated on my progress there will be the odd blog post and a dedicated page Book Club 2020 page, with a little bit about each book and a link to amazon.