2024 in runs, swims and cycles

For the 12th year, my annual review of the running, swimming and cycling I’ve done, with so much gratitude. I’ve spent some time over the last couple of days looking back over 2024, and this is just one aspect of who I am and what I love doing but it’s still really important to me. The stats are easy to collate from Strava; what you don’t see there is the determination and effort that goes in and the joy and satisfaction that comes out.

Running – I ran 1075 miles in 2024, in England, Scotland and Switzerland.

Just five medals: from Queen of the Suburbs 25k, Marlow 7, Round Norfolk Relay, Suffolk trail marathon and Ealing half.

24 parkruns, with 9 new locations. Ally Pally; Soham Village College; Thames Path Woolwich; Thurrock; Stockley Country; Tamar Lakes and St Andrews with Anne for my hundredth location (photo above), with Whitehaven at the start of the C2C ride and Newbury on the way to see my friend Letty since. I did my 250th parkrun in July alongside Anna’s 100th and Jonny’s 150th.

Some memorable runs:
– Scammadale Glen, visiting our friends near Oban
– Round the Orme with Gav in Llandudno
– pacing Flo to a PB at Barnstaple junior parkrun
– first enthusiastic run in Sisikon, Switzerland trying to stick to my marathon plan. It took days for my quads to recover. So many beautiful runs over those two weeks.
– Ealing half, with a surprising course PB
– Suffolk coastal marathon – such a beautiful run. Really grateful to Jenny Bushell for coaching me through it.
– run to work in November when it started to snow on the way. I didn’t have enough layers on and it was absolutely freezing.

Cycling – I cycled 1300 miles this year. I started the year with an ambitious target of 2000 miles for the year, reduced that to 1500 in the summer and then further still to 1300 miles in the autumn which I completed this morning. Most of my cycling has been between work in Westminster and home. Some more memorable rides:
– the C2C ride in May with Amos Road Club, from Whitehaven to Tynemouth over three days. I first did this solo in 2011 as a kind of cycling retreat trying to work out what to do with my life, my first ever multi-day ride. It was great to do it with a large group of people and I watched in awe the day after we finished as several people tried the return journey in just one day.
– Cycling to Bore Place for work residential in September with a group of much younger work colleagues. At least I wasn’t the only one who had to get off and walk up a hill.
– Cycle to the wood in October half term.

Swimming – I swam less than 16 miles this year, and that was logged in around 70 swims. I swam through the winter for the first time ever, swimming at least once a week between October and March in the Serpentine or the Thames in Teddington. My most memorable swims were in Lake Uri in Switzerland, beautiful turquoise clear water with lots of little fish. I also swam in Charlton lido, Walpole Tidal pool, Bude sea pool, Acton pool, Loch Scammadale near Oban, and Llyn Geirionydd in North Wales, plus the sea in Margate and Croyde.

Final moments of joy to record was walking the Snowdon horseshoe with Gav, and lots of gorgeous walks through forests and mountains in Switzerland.

I’m 60 next year and planning a cycle and a run to celebrate, but also mindful that I need to do more strength exercises and stretching to help my body achieve all I want it to!