As 2020 has almost come to an end, I’ve decided to review my running highlights, lowest points, and lessons learned throughout the year. As I spent a large proportion of the year injured and unable to run, I decided to include some non-running highlights and low points. I almost didn’t write this review but I decided that I may enjoy looking back at what has been a somewhat surreal year.

Here are the links to my previous annual reviews, you may detect a theme! 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019

January

I started the year unable to run due to knee and foot niggles. This led to me volunteering as a barcode scanner at my local parkrun on New Year’s Day. I felt that if I couldn’t run, I should volunteer. My experience of volunteering on New Year’s Day wasn’t overly positive, despite my local parkrun starting earlier to give people more time to travel to a second parkrun, I had barcodes shoved at me, barely any of the runners spoke or thanked me and it all felt quite stressful. I can’t say I was too disappointed or surprised when parkrun HQ announced the end of New Year’s Day doubles.

[Photo – Peter Heafield]

Although I couldn’t run, I made my running goals for 2020 public. My main goal was to become a member of the parkrun 50 club. I figured that this would be achievable as I’d already completed 36 parkruns. Little did I know parkrun would end up being cancelled for the majority of the year! I volunteered at my local parkrun on the first Saturday of the year and as I didn’t enjoy the experience that much, I decided to take a break from volunteering.

I’m already sounding like a negative Nora; January wasn’t all doom and gloom. I appeared in the January issue of Women’s Running Magazine and in doing so, ticked-off a long-term personal goal.  I also stepped out of my comfort zone and attended the National Running Show in Birmingham as I’d booked myself a Run3D gait analysis and treatment. Both were incredibly informative and I eventually decided to review my Run3D experience. I was told that resting was doing more harm than good and that I could start running again if I was sensible. I decided to start following the Couch to 5k.

February

February got off to a great start when I received notification that this running blog had been shortlisted in the 2020 Running Awards personal blog category. Thanks again if you took the time to vote for me. On February 4th I completed a 24-minute interval session. If you’ve ever been injured, you’ll know just how scary the first post-injury run can be. Once I’d stopped worrying my right knee was going to implode, I managed to complete the majority of the first four weeks of the Couch to 5k.

Towards the end of the month, several local parkruns were cancelled due to the terrible weather. This included the relatively new parkrun in Beacon Park in Lichfield I’d arranged to run/walk around with a friend. I remember reading some of the quite frankly rude messages on parkrun Facebook pages and wondering what made some people so self-entitled. The not so ideal weather led to me missing the Marathon Talk Run Camp that took place towards the end of the month. The flood duty overtime payments only just covered the cost of the run camp.

I subsequently spent a lot of time during lockdown wondering how the people who were flooded out of their homes were getting on. Imagine spending lockdown living in temporary accommodation; that was the reality for a lot of people. I’m a hydrologist but sometimes I really do hate rivers.

March

I can only really describe March as a truly surreal month. March started with people just starting to take Covid-19 seriously and ended with us living in lockdown and the more fortunate of us, working from home.

Although my heart wasn’t really in it and I wasn’t enjoying my training, I managed to complete weeks five to seven of the Couch to 5k and shared weekly updates on this blog. I volunteered as a barcode scanner at Beacon parkrun and loved meeting and chatting with loads of new runners. As it was International Women’s Day I’d also agreed to write part of the event report for Sutton Park parkrun. I doubt I’ll manage to volunteer at two different parkruns on the same day again.

On March 14th I volunteered at Sutton Park parkrun as a tail walker. My running buddy Ellen joined me and we had a fab chat as we strolled around Sutton Park.

[Photo – Peter Heafield]

Little did I know as I said my goodbyes to the other volunteers that parkrun would end up being cancelled for the rest of the year. Two days later I travelled into the office in Solihull. I knew something wasn’t quite right when both the train and the office were more or less completely empty. The train home was a lot busier and as I sat surrounded by people coughing and spluttering, I decided to work from home for the rest of the week. Later that week everything changed when Boris told us to stay at home. Lockdown had started.

I’m not even sure I left the house after that announcement, the rest of March passed by in a blur of toilet roll and panic buying induced stress, network issues, jigsaws, and episodes of Our Girl.

April

I didn’t blog much in April as I didn’t really have much to say. I rarely left the house and as I wasn’t running, didn’t want to bore people with posts about my lockdown life. I mean, who really wanted to read about my new obsession with jigsaw puzzles!

After I was called a “murderer” on a so-called local community page – all I did was ask if any local takeaways were delivering – I also deactivated my Facebook account. The improvement in my mental health was pretty much instantaneous.

Looking back, I actually quite enjoyed the first few weeks of lockdown and I actually miss those quiet days when we were forced to slow down a little. I live alone and quite enjoy my own company so to start, working from home suited me. Not having to commute to and from Solihull meant that I gained three hours a day. I used this extra time to read more books and to write and publish a couple of blogs, including an updated day in my life post.

May

At the start of May, I celebrated my 41st birthday. The day was such a contrast to my 40th birthday in Wallingford 12 months earlier. Mum dropped some presents, some cards, and a small cake around and that was it. Seeing but not being able to hug my mum on my birthday was difficult. I spent a couple of hours in what I call ‘self-pity’ mode but gave myself a bit of a pep talk and reminded myself that I was 41 and not 14.

After a week where it felt like my mental health was deteriorating because I was cooped up inside my house all the time, I decided that I needed to leave my house more. I didn’t particularly fancy walking around the streets of Four Oaks for hours at a time, so I started following the Couch to 5k for a second time. I headed out on the first interval session quite late in the evening as I thought it would be quiet out. It was anything but quiet, and I found having to dodge dog walkers, children riding bikes on the pavements, and families out walking quite stressful. That was the last time I ran in the evening. I became an early morning runner and got to experience some stunning sunrises.

May had a lot of highlights, I don’t want people to think I spent most of the month feeling sorry for myself. I completed a socially distanced run with my running buddy Ellen in Sutton Park. While the park was busy and dodging people was a little stressful, catching up with Ellen was awesome.

I successfully completed the first three weeks of the Couch to 5k and was included in a feature about starting the Couch to 5k during the lockdown in the Metro. Seeing my mugshot on the internet always amuses me.

June

My Couch to 5k training was going really well and I completed every training session of weeks four to seven of the plan. I loved my early morning training runs and started waking up well before my 5am alarm. Four Oaks was so quiet, I was able to focus on my running and could forget about what was happening in the ‘real world’ for an hour, three mornings a week.

By June I’d finally adapted to living alone and working from home. It took me a while to get used to the new ’normal’ but I got there in the end. I an attempt to avoid the news, I spent more time reading running-related books and shared my first attempt at a book review post. I also spent far too much time online buying ‘stuff’ I didn’t really need. In an attempt to curb my lockdown spending, I published what I spend in a week: the lockdown edition. I’m not sure that shaming myself on the internet really made much difference.

July

July didn’t get off to the most positive of starts when I picked up an injury during the penultimate run of the Couch to 5k. It was definitely a case of so near and yet so far!

Hindsight is a wonderful thing and on reflection, I shouldn’t have even attempted that training run as my knee niggled throughout the warm-up walk. One day I’ll learn to be sensible. I’m still waiting for my knee to stop randomly niggling, it’s getting better but it’s a slow and frustrating process. I shared what had happened on Instagram and tried to remain positive.

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A post shared by Emma Neachell (@thephdrunner)

The rest of July was what I’d describe as mixed. I had a meal at Mum’s for the first time since the start of the year. The change of scenery was amazing, as was seeing my mum, step-dad, and cats. Having a break from my terrible cooking was an added bonus.

I shared a running goals (lack of) progress report and accepted that I probably wouldn’t achieve any of them. I also reviewed the insoles I suspect caused my knee injury. Writing a not so positive review of a product was difficult but I felt that I had to be honest.

The month ended with two much-needed reality checks. The first was a reminder that the scales don’t lie and that I needed to lose weight and to improve my diet. Although I couldn’t run I could walk so I decided to set myself a daily steps target of 10,000 steps a day. In an attempt to make myself a little more accountable, I started sharing my weekly Fitbit stats on Instagram.

The second reality check was a reminder that I need to find myself a permanent job. Discovering my fixed-term contract was going to end two months earlier than I thought was incredibly stressful. I missed running more than ever.

August

August was the first of a series of months of zero running mileage. My trainers sat gathering dust, my Garmin battery went flat, and I was devastated I couldn’t test out the Nurvv Run smart insoles I’d been sent to review. During the first couple of weeks, my left knee felt incredibly painful; navigating the stairs at home wasn’t much fun. I made the mistake of trying to use my exercise bike, although my left knee didn’t hurt while I was pretending to cycle around a section of Lake Garda, I was unable to walk when I got off the bike. It’s a good job I was living alone as I don’t think I would have been very good company.

Fortunately, there’s more to life than running and I was still able to walk and to achieve my daily steps target. I discovered that this blog had been featured in The Tip Club’s 21 Best Running blogs created by women for women. Following a slightly surreal train journey that incorporated a virtually empty Birmingham New Street, I spent the first day in the office since March and loved the change of scenery, speedy network, and spending a few hours with one of my colleagues.

I also made use of the Eat Out to Help Out scheme and ate out a couple of times for the first time since March. Apologies for the terrible selfie, I was so excited about the food I was about to eat, I failed to notice the alarm system behind me!

I found out that my fixed-term contract had been extended to the end of next September, published a life lately update, seriously considered quitting blogging, and entered the virtual London Marathon.

September

Looking back, September was one of the better months of 2020. I ate out every Saturday with a friend who also lives alone. My mental health really benefitted from the change of scenery, it’s just a shame my waistline didn’t benefit from my slight addiction to Club sandwiches.

I was still working my way through my pile of running books most evenings and I decided to write and publish a second book review. Following a sudden influx of requests for guest posts, this turned out to be the only post I wrote and published in September. While I didn’t write much in September, I did spend some time calculating how much I’d spent on running-related purchases throughout the year.

In an attempt to maintain a minimum level of fitness and as I had a marathon walk to prepare for, I increased my daily distance and steps targets each week, and reacquainted myself with Sutton Park.

This went really well until I attempted to walk 14,000 steps each day. After a couple of weeks of persistent pain in the exact location of my previous stress fracture, I decided to see a podiatrist. The podiatrist confirmed what I already knew; I have flat feet, dodgy arches, and a slight leg length discrepancy. Just call me the wonky runner. Although my foot was causing me a bit of anxiety, my knee finally started to respond to all the strengthening exercises and stretches. I ended the month with a couple of exercise bike sessions.

September ended on a really positive note when I discovered this blog had made it into Vuelio’s Top 10 UK Running blogs for the fourth year in a row. After receiving an incredibly rude email from a PR – so rude I actually forwarded the email to the brand they were representing – the email from Vuelio stopped me from abandoning this blog.

October

October started with a failed attempt at the marathon distance. On a wet, cold, and windy night in Four Oaks, 17 miles turned out to be my absolute limit. The soles of my feet have never coped well with wet conditions and it was wet.

I wrote and shared some thoughts and vowed to never enter another marathon again. I later regretted my DNF when I saw how much people were selling their medals and t-shirts for online. Yes, I have no shame; I would have quite happily sold my medal and t-shirt on eBay. With Christmas rapidly approaching, the extra money would have come in handy.

While my knee did start to feel like it was finally starting to improve, I decided to write-off running for the rest of the year. With no races to train for and with parkrun cancelled, I saw little point in trying to rush my return to running. I was still enjoying spending time on my exercise bike and completed a couple of longer training sessions. The seat doesn’t appear to have been designed for comfort and after a couple of somewhat painful sessions, I finally invested in some proper padded cycling shorts.

The increase in Covid-19 cases and the uncertainty about just about everything made me feel incredibly unsettled. I knew that I was incredibly fortunate compared to a lot of people, but I’ve never been very good at dealing with uncertainty. My line manager didn’t make me feel any better when he told me to start looking for and applying for jobs. I knew that he was only trying to help, but his comments still unsettled me. This and the seemingly never-ending stream of bad news in the press resulted in a lot of sleepless nights. I decided to spend less time on social media and more time outside.

October wasn’t all doom and gloom so I’ll end with the positives. I had another amazing Sunday dinner at Mum’s and met the latest feline addition to the family; Ginger the rescue cat.

I managed to meet up with my sister, her partner, and my nieces for the first time this year. Seeing them all was amazing, I just hoped I’d be able to see them again before the end of the year. Although I had no idea if I’d be able to see any of my family over the Christmas period, I made a start on my Christmas shopping. I had the final week of October off as some much-needed and somewhat overdue annual leave.

 

In typical Emma style, I made myself a ‘things to do’ list at the start of the week and then proceeded to ignore it. Restrictions in Birmingham limited what I could do, and my lack of a car meant that I couldn’t travel anywhere. I still enjoyed a couple of wet walks in Sutton Park, and a wet and windy visit to the National Memorial Arboretum. I’ve included a few photos above. Life got even more challenging for us all when the Government announced a second national lockdown.

November

I found the penultimate month of 2020 incredibly difficult. Like a lot of people, I found the second national lockdown far more challenging than the first national lockdown. It all felt a little pointless as so many people seemed determined to carry on as normal. As a result, the announcement that Birmingham would move into Tier 3 at the end of the second national lockdown didn’t come as a huge surprise.

In an attempt to get outside when it was light, I blocked out an hour each day for lunch in my work calendar. This stopped people sneakily scheduling lunchtime meetings and enabled me to soak up(?!) some of the November sunshine (and rain). I enjoyed my daily walks; spending time outside gave me time to think and made me more productive in the afternoons.

My knee improved so much, I completed a few indoor running workouts, this 30-minute workout was a favourite, however, don’t think I covered 5k! Thanks to my proper padded cycling shorts, I was also able to complete a couple of slightly longer training sessions on my exercise bike.

In an attempt to curb my online shopping, I published the true cost of running: the 2020 edition. Whereas in previous years loads of people found the breakdown of my spending on running quite interesting, hardly anyone read what I’d written. I spent far too much time worrying that I’d somehow inadvertently offended people by spending so much on my running hobby and decided to take a break from blogging.

The realisation that I’d spent far too much money buying random crap online and that finding a job when my fixed-term contract ends is going to be incredibly difficult, resulted in me setting myself a series of no spend and side hustle challenges for 2021. I can’t wait to share the details with you and to get started.

December

December was a month of what I can only describe as highs and lows, and not a lot of running. I started the month with a trip to Ironbridge, and although it rained most of the time I was there, the brief change of scenery most definitely helped my mental health.

Thanks to a lot of meetings and training courses, work was incredibly busy. It was like people knew I had two weeks’ of annual leave over the festive period so they submitted their technical queries before I went on leave. By the third week of December I felt so shattered, I started to think I had a re-occurrence of Lyme disease or Covid-19. A couple of negative Covid tests confirmed that I was just tired.

I bought myself a pair of Fitbit scales, and after receiving the kick up the arse I needed, I set myself the goal of completing 10 training sessions on my exercise bike during the month. I also set myself the target of walking 150 miles during December. I’ve no idea how close I got to this target, but I maintained my 10,000 daily steps streak throughout the month.

I can’t review December without briefly talking about the Christmas period. I have no idea how or why and I wasn’t going to complain, but Birmingham remained in Tier 3. This meant that my Christmas plans didn’t have to change, and I was able to spend Christmas Day in my support bubble with my mum, step-dad, and the three family cats.

Although not seeing the rest of my family felt strange, we made the best of the situation and ended up having a great day. My family clearly knows me very well and my Christmas presents were a combination of Percy Pig gifts, running books and gear, and alcohol. I actually found Boxing Day more difficult to deal with as I’d usually spend time with my siblings and their families. Knowing that I’d bought my nieces and nephew awesome Christmas presents made me feel a little better, but there were still a few tears. I just hope that Christmas 2021 can resemble some sort of normality.

I always like to approach the end of each year feeling positive, so I’ve set myself some running and fitness related goals for 2021. I’ve also set myself some life goals and some no spend and side hustle challenges for 2021.

Looking back, on both a personal level and as a runner, 2020 had its ups and downs. I think my Instagram Top 9 shows just how much I didn’t share on social media as I look happy in all of the photos, the reality was a little different!

There were times when everything felt surreal and it felt like we were stuck in some sort of nightmare. I cried a lot and spent most of the year feeling incredibly isolated. There were times I felt like throwing out my running shoes and calling time on my running career. My monthly running (purple) and cycling (green) mileage charts made me smile so I decided to include them.

Although my training was more than a little inconsistent in 2020, I ran and cycled when I could and stopped running when I needed to.

I’m going to sound incredibly selfish now, but I hope that I have a less injury-filled 2021!

What was the running highlight of 2020 for you?

What are your running and fitness goals for 2021?

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