Annual goals and retrospectives

Since I added my annual goals to the blog's sidebar, this has become the place to archive them at the end of the year. This is that archive.

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2022 retrospective

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I started this year doing no regular exercise at all — even the exercise bike bought in lockdown had become more of a drying rack than a workout machine. I ended the year, however, having achieved all of the following: Completed Couch to 5K (yay!) Done an 8K urban orienteering event Ran the Race for Life Attended 15 16 parkruns at 12 different locations Finished in the top 50% of men at multiple parkruns Ran 5K in under 25 minutes (albeit on a treadmill) I'm gonna say this was a pretty good year. 😁 Me, at Carlisle Park parkrun in Morpeth (November 2022) So, what can I look forward to next year? A few options to consider: Attend 30 parkruns over the course of the year? Attend another 5 new parkrun locations? (Including Bramhall ?) Achieve a 25-minute time at a parkrun? Achieve a sub -25-minute time at a parkrun? Do a 10K event (the only 2022 goal I failed to achieve)? Take Daughter the First on the 3K Race for Life? Some of those definitely feel aspirational rather than realistic...
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Parkrun #13: South Shields

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After a whole week of no running (blame half term and a stinking cold), it was straight back into it today with another parkrun and another new location: South Shields . Driving from the north side of the Tyne, South Shields always feels like a bit of a trek, as you still have so far to go even once you're through the tunnel. And there's no fast road to the coast, just loads of roundabouts and junctions. At least, that's my excuse for only just making it in time. That and the fact I had to hunt for change to pay for parking when the website had said there was plenty of free parking. Hmmm... maybe there is somewhere , but not where I parked. 🤔 Anyway, once that was sorted, I headed down onto the prom. The weather was your typically dull, cool and slightly hazy, out-of-season British seaside weather. A slight nip in the air, but still more autumnal than wintery. Luckily, the first timers' explanation was held pretty late, so I got a quick run-through and the chance to a...
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Midweek: the full length of Jesmond Dene

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What a difference two days make: Saturday : continuing miserable weather, long-running sinus headache, wimped out of parkrun, thoroughly down and wondering whether this was the beginning of the end for my running habit Monday : sun's out and it's warmed up, headache's finally gone, back out at lunchtime for a thoroughly enjoyable 6.4K run, loving the running buzz again So yeah, parkrun on Saturday didn't happen. I needed to do a local one (because $kids) but didn't want to break my tourist streak, so Jesmond Dene was on the cards. Knowing that that would be a tough and most-likely demoralising parkrun if done with a pounding headache, I chose not to bother, even though it would hurt my "30 parkruns in 2023" goal. In hindsight, it was probably the right choice, for both my mental health and for the headache. Even if my next parkrun's not till the 19th August (Penrhyn 🤞), I'll still be on target for 32 by the end of the year. Enough of that though....
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