Review of 2012 and my first year of running

 A little late I know but it's now been a year since I started running and my first ever race back on the 6th January 2012 at Blymhill running around for 6 miles wondering why on earth I had decided to take up running?

2012 has consisted of many races, in total 10 broken down as below

3 x 10ks                            (Blymhill 10k, Blackpool 10k and Trailblazer 10k)
3 x Half Marathons            (Worcester Half, Lichfield Half and Birmingham Half)
2 x Marathons                    (Rutland Water Marathon & Enigma Christmas Marathon)
2 x Ultra Marathons           (Grim Reaper 40mile and Enigma Gold 30mile)

I have only pulled out of two races due to injury which were Sutton Park 10k and Malvern Half Marathon and the great british weather was to blame for the cancellation of another race the Kingsbury Water Park 10k.

In all the races I have done I have met some lovely people along the way both event organizers, fellow runners, marshalls and running communities online some of whom I am yet to race with in 2013! 

I have only suffered with one injury which put me out of running for a few weeks which was Piriformis, something I hope I never get again.
 I have only DNF'd one race. Dare I talk about it?.... THE GRIM!!! but that experience taught me that anything is possible if you set your mind to it, yes you may not be able to walk for 3 days after but it was worth it as since not finishing The Grim Ultra in July I have successfully finished one Ultra marathon and three marathons with some lovely medals to show for it and lots of new friends made.

My 10k time has gone from 1:10:38 at Blymhill to 1:03:31, there was however a sub 1 hour 10k that was the first part of the Bupa Birmingham Half Marathon but it doesn't really count as a 10k pb.

 My Half Marathon time has gone from 2:31:15 at Worcester Half Marathon in April to 2:08:07 at Birmingham Half Marathon in October.

My Marathon time has gone from 5:56:08 at Rutland Water Marathon in November to 5:31:24 in December at Enigma Christmas then more recently which you will read about in my next blog I got a new pb of 5:20:59 at Enigma Winter that's a massive 36 minutes shaved off in 2 months!

Finally I ran 637.78 miles in 2012 spent 123 hours 48 minutes 59seconds on my feet with my running shoes on pounding the pavement ( you got to love the report function on garmin connect) and burnt 58935 calories in the process. My average speed over the year was 5.1mph  not fast but I got the job done!

Thank you to everyone that supported me along the way, my family, my friends, my car for getting me to the races and my legs for getting me to the finish.

I have pledged that I would like to run more than 900 miles in 2013 and conquer the Grim Reaper 40mile ultra marathon with Maureen from Run For Fun, I'm also going to join my local running group and see what else 2013 will bring.