Running-wise 2025 has really been about one thing – the Brighton marathon. Training for this started in November 2024 and the race was in early April 2025, meaning I did very little else in the first quarter apart from training for it. Along the way, I ran a half marathon PB in Victoria Park in January, did an event in February where I completed a metric marathon distance (26.2km), and then in March another event which I used to top out my longest run in training at 32.2km.
I really felt up against my limit as the long runs peaked (which I guess is the idea), but, when I look back I think I actually peaked too early.
I went into the marathon itself feeling fairly good for a time around 5 hours, and my early pace for the first 11 miles had me bang on for it. Then I stupidly walked the last hill, then stopped to use the toilets, and my momentum was broken. I then ran-walked the rest, finishing in 5:49, which was quite a lot slower than I wanted. But it was a warm day, and in hindsight seeing how London crushed a lot of people’s hopes under similar warm conditions, I can’t look at it with too much disappointment.
After the marathon, I had a lot of rest and ran a lot less over the summer, getting in some backpacking and hiking to make up for lost time. But I had two autumn races to do.
First in September was my local 10k race, on its inaugural outing. Frustratingly it was a short course at about 9.7km so even though it was a fastest time, and on a hilly course, I can’t really count it as a PB.
In October, I had the postponed Great South Run, which was cancelled in 2024. Another miserable day, just like the one it was cancelled on, but a bit less windy and so just about safe to run. I wasn’t in the shape I was for the 2024 non-race, and so just aimed to get around.
And then it was rest. A lot of rest. After two years of continuous running, I took some actual down time, then got ill, then struggled to get back on course. As I write this at Christmas, I’m just about getting back to a regular pattern.
This year I ran 38 parkruns, volunteered 12 times at 9 events, and passed the 200 parkruns unofficial milestone. I ran at 7 locations, 4 of which were new to me.
Best times this year:
- 5k: 27:00
- 10k: 1:03:22 (although my short 10k race equated to about 56:00 if it had been long enough)
- 10 mile: 1:42:59
- HM: 2:18:27
- Mara: 5:49:24
Next year
After the rigours of 2025, I decided quite early on that I didn’t want such a disruptive year next year. The marathon effectively killed my subsequent running for months – not so much the event itself (which was if anything too comfortable as a result of introducing walking way earlier than I expected), but the training that went with it. I promised myself that in 2026 I’d do no event longer than (say) 25km purely running.
I do feel like the whole marathon experience has changed my outlook on this running lark. Help it or not I went into the experience believing I could do both distance and pace, but looking at it now, the goal on these long events has to be completing it – I’ll leave the good finish times to the shorter events. Finishing a long event feels like much more of an achievement to me than simply running fast at a shorter distance.
This is partly why the races I’ve signed up for in 2026 are trail races. There’s less self-imposed pressure to run hard and fast in an event where it really is more about pacing yourself over the distance and terrain, and where simply completing it is the first consideration. I think I’m already feeling the benefits in freeing my mind from looking to run fast. My complete stop in November and very gingerly re-entering running in December has played a part also. I’m now more focussed on building fitness and if some speed comes, then all well and good.
The races currently in the calendar for 2026 are:
- Saltmarsh Half Marathon – in April. A local trail race along a flat course, this is really a progress check towards and rehearsal for the next one…
- Giant’s Head Half Marathon – in June. I’ve wanted to do this ever since hearing of it. A run over the chalk ridges near Cerne Abbas in Dorset, the very paths in some cases that I walked when I did the Wessex Ridgeway in 2023. It promises to be a great weekend. My wife is doing the 10k on the Saturday.
- Race to the Stones – in July. Another I wanted to do when I heard about it, it’s along the Ridgeway, which I have fond memories of (also from 2023). I’m doing the second half 50k, purely because it’s the half that actually goes to the Stones (Avebury). It’s a beginner friendly ultra with no cut-off, so what’s not to like. It won’t be my first ultra, as I walked one on the North Downs in 2023, but it will be the first one I’m aiming to run/walk (aiming for roughly 50:50 split), so I should come away with a PB for the distance.
- Dartmoor Volcano – in September. A 10.5 mile race over southern Dartmoor, covering some terrain familiar from a walk in 2017, and this year’s Perambulation. I’m not 100% that I’ll be doing it as there are other options around that time, and at least one race that I’ll be in a ballot for, so won’t know for a while.
There may the odd local 10k too.
My training in 2026 will look a lot different to 2025. With the maximum running distance I’m targeting being about 25km, I can essentially train myself up to half marathon distance and look to maintain that sort of level, which is my longer term goal generally.
