Well, it’s the season of Christmas specials and annual reviews so I thought I’d share my thoughts on my 2009. My initial plan for the year was to run 2 marathons, and try and get close to 2.18. To do this, I needed to be in PB shape for the half, so hoped to set a PB at this distance too.

My spring was scuppered by a stress reaction in my femur, so I missed the London Marathon and wasn’t fit until May/June. I was fortunate to be asked to do a half-marathon for England in Denmark when not fully fit but was really pleased with 66.56 on a windy hilly course when I really didn’t think I was in very good shape! I was only 20 secs or so behind Gaz Raven who was going really well at the time.

This result suggested I’d run a good 10k at the London 10k, but it wasn’t to be. I ran an awful 31.10 and wasn’t sure why…  I put it out of my mind and focussed on having a decent summer, but always keeping an Autumn marathon in mind. I ran my fastest 5k since my PB year in 2006 with 14.18, and a 29.52 for 10k at the AAA. I was hoping for a PB here to be honest (29.40) but it didn’t happen. That ended my track season, which was solid, if unspectacular.

I started doing Tuesday night sessions down at Ladywell this year, with guys like Jermaine Mays, Andy Rayner, Ben Tickner, James Connor and Florian Neuschwander which has been good for me. I’ve enjoyed doing sessions with other people again and it’s helped me focus a bit more, as well as make the sessions easier!

I did some really good sessions here and was starting to feel really good again and despite some mediocre 10ks that I ran on my own, I thought I could really do something good at the Bristol Half. I ended up running 65.58, and I’m sure that if this was a quick course, I’d have threatened my PB of 65.23 and was pleased with my run, going into the Florence Marathon. I had another strong run at the Great South Run, running 49.30 in a gale. Unfortunately I then picked up a niggle straight after which made miss 10 days of vital training. I’m not sure how much difference this made, but I know my 2.21 at Florence wasn’t quite what I wanted, and I expected a bit more.

Overall, a satisfactory year, with enough to indicate I could still run a very good marathon – I just have to get out there and do it!