Saturday, 2 January 2021

Happy New Year! Events for 2021

As we roll into 2021 (hi, from Tier 4) there's not a lot of in-person running going on, so along with the rest of the world I've adopted the "virtual event" lifestyle. "Health in mind and body" is my theme for 2021, which means aiming for consistency.

I found a virtual Lands End to John O'Groats challenge last year, from End to End events. I signed up for a bit of motivation, there's a year to complete it which for me is 27th September 2021 - I'm currently about 200 miles into the 874 mile distance. There are several events running concurrently, so if you fancy joining the challenge you can still sign up to start on January 1st.

I went back to the site looking for something interesting for 2021. I found the End to End virtual Everest challenge, complete enough ascent to have made your way from base camp to the summit - a total of 19,696 feet, or 6,003m. The challenge started in October but I only came across it late December so I'll have a go at completing it during January (final date to complete is February 25th). Only two days in so far (and 658m out of 6,003m completed) so a bit early to have an opinion on achievability.

Next is a distance challenge. I just about cleared 1,000km last year (after injuring my calf mid-year and needing to start from literally zero again with C25k!) so that seems a good place to start for 2021.

At the start of 2020 I entered the Virtual Runner 1,000km challenge to show solidarity with some workmates; that seemed like a good baseline for 2021 so I've entered that again. I need a bit more of a challenge for this year, so entered the 1,000 mile version too. I'm holding a place in my mind for a 2,021km stretch objective - but I'm keeping that on the back burner for now.

Who knows what 2021 will bring - I'm staying optimistic for some in-person races in the last third of the year, so Mrs and I signed up this morning for the Bedford Running Festival - I wrote about that in 2019. We're going for the 5k and Twilight 10k on Saturday, and then the half marathon on Sunday. I'm cautious about entering anything earlier int he year, we'll just have to see what happens.

I'm looking forward to a year of running, and, yes, even doing a bit more writing about it.