I’d hoped to finish 2017 with Portsmouth Marathon.  However, due to being let go the week before Christmas I had to shelve the idea of a weekend away which was emotionally battering for me.  I’d spent so much time planning Portsmouth even down to the trial race day and I knew that if I spent 26.2 miles worrying about whether I would get paid the following week that my head would not be in the game.  Being in a positive mindset is so important for a marathon.  The decision did not come easily as I’ve ran a marathon every year since I started running.

2017 was a year of fair weather running.  Running when it suited my pain levels.  The big benefit was getting Acupuncture in November which has removed the pain from my slipped disc allowing my long runs this half of the year to progress from 6 miles to 11 miles.  I just know I could go marathon distance in the right mindset.  I spent the lighter parts of the year on 6 mile runs creating a good endurance base. With more long runs than any other year despite the pain.

The only race I did, the Bristol 10k, was sadly not a Personal Best but I did finish it.  There were also more parkrun’s than any other year.  Another parkrun highlight was helping set up Eastville junior parkrun.

2017 has been a bit of a mixed bag.  Yet the base I kept up will hopefully help me reach for better efforts in 2018 with a pain free body to work with again.

https://2017.strava.com/en-us/videos/6a7bc24f28535c744f68c4a989d1ad0fb78d70f5/

The Strava year in sport feature is lovely and includes all the stats I’d usually type up.

Distance	314.2 mi
Time	62h 7m
Elev Gain	17,014 ft
Runs	106

Lots to build on in the next year!

Happy running

Eleanor

xxx