After a crazy year of over 30 races in 2014 I am actually going to do it right. No longer will I consider a race 3 out of 4 weeks in a month training. I will actually train. And by train I mean train. I mean run the miles, wear the weight vest, do hill repeats and interval training, workout my core, use the dust covered foam roller. To motivate myself, my highly embarrassing race times on my Nike Plus have been put together in a spread sheet (sorry I am an analyst) to show me just how badly my half-a$$ed attempt at being a runner has been to date.

This year, as you can tell, I am running just 11 races so I am hoping to train and see an improvement over the course of the year to a point of PBs across the board with the New Years Day race at Hyde Park organised by the Serpentine Running Club.

  

I am running the Berlin Marathon for Pancreatic Cancer UK and raising the money for them as I did last year. I am also raising funds for Parkinsons UK by running the other 10 races. I had been sent two, yes count them, two running vest by Parkinsons UK but when looking for them to run this race I couldn’t find them. I hunted high and low and then realised that I put all my race t-shirts from last year in a charity bag and dropping it off, and they were probably in there. So, Parkinsons UK, if you are reading this, I need a new running vest, please.

I have never run Hyde Park. I have run Regents, Greenwich, Victoria, St James, Bushy, Richmond, Old Deer, and Green but never Hyde Park. The route took you around the park edge, then looped back half way and finished at the Serpentine lake.

I wore the bright orange Asics Cumulus for the first time and I think this was a bit of a mistake. I cramped a few times, and my mortons neuroma is acting up today as I write this. I ran the first 3K without walking and kept up my average pace for a 10K. I could have pushed it to do much better but decided to take it a little easier than normal. Not 100% happy with the time but it could have been worse. 2015 positivity, that is the new black.

None! Even though there was last year!

None! Even though sponsored by Brooks Running!!

None!!!

Just a fucking shoe bag!

Sussex Photography did themselves proud this time, with 42 clear photos of me. Rather than those ninja races where I somehow run a half marathon past a dozen photographers without being snapped once. Here are two. Two feet off the ground? That is technically running.

A RACE ON NEW YEARS DAY – SAD FACE

A MORNING RACE ON NEW YEARS DAY – SKULL

A MORNING RACE ON A COLD NEW YEARS DAY – SKULL AND CROSSBONES

A MORNING RACE ON A COLD NEW YEARS DAY WITH MUSIC PLAYERS BANNED – DOUBLE SKULL AND CROSSBONES

A MORNING RACE ON A COLD NEW YEARS DAY WITH NO FRICKING MEDAL! – A SAD FACE,  DOUBLE SKULL AND CROSSBONES AND FOUR DISAPPOINTING SEQUELS STARRING JOHNNY DEPP THAT TANK AT THE BOX OFFICE

So would I run it again? No

Would I recommend it? Only if you have nothing else to do on New Years day, e.g. sleep, digest the previous day’s food like a boa constrictor that ate a pony, watch TV, iron your hankies.

There is a bit of a hoohah on Social Media. People are asking how 700-800 people x 17 quid means a cheap shitty shoe bag. And I concur.

Cancer Research Winter Run, whose website states

So will definitely be there!! With bells on!