I did a lot of fun things this year. Having spent most of October and November not running at all, it’s difficult to believe the running that these legs have done. But on reflection, it’s obvious that at some point during the year I started to feel a little bit invisible so it’s no surprise that my body would eventually prove me wrong and force me to sit down.

So, to save you making the same mistakes as I have, and to stop me from repeating them all next year, here’s how running in 2015 went – the highs and lows.

January

After a cheeky New Year’s Eve marathon, I woke up with achy legs and a bit of a sore head from the beers that followed. January was my first ultra marathon – Country to Capital on the 17th and I had a great day running 42 miles into London from the Chilterns.

February

I was surprised by how my legs felt after the ultra and gradually I got back into a bit of running. There were no races this month, but it being my birthday month, it did see the second beer run.

March

I boarded the Eurostar and travelled to France in March to run the EcoTrail Paris ultra marathon. My race was 80km long and finished at the Eiffel Tower. Actually, on the first floor of the tower so after 80km of running, we had to climb a LOT of stairs to get to the finish.  Apparently there’s a lift?

April

For a few years now, April has meant marathons. And despite having already run two ultras this year, I couldn’t see any reason why I shouldn’t keep with traditions and run 26.2 miles, so I ran London marathon and Manachester. I was starting to get greedy.

May

The month started with the Crystal Palace Triathlon, and then I went to Copenhagen with some friends and ran another marathon. I wanted to collect another Good for Age time for London to book my place for next year, and I did that and then decided it was time for a bit of a rest.

June

Things calmed down on the running front. I ran a couple of 10ks and a mile race. And then I got on my bike and cycled 300 miles to Rotterdam for a holiday. I had the best time – I regret nothing.

July

Because I love a relay race, and a whole month had gone by without me running a marathon, I took part in the Bastion iron triathlon with two friends and took on the run leg. That’s 26.2 miles of run leg.

August

I decided that it would be fun to train for an autumn marathon. So instead of bouncing from one race to the next, I cleared my calendar, wrote a plan and booked into Bournemouth marathon in October. I was feeling pretty strong from ultra training and the plan was that a bit of speedier running for a couple of months would get me over the line and bag a Boston Qualifier. I did the London triathlon and then focussed on running.

September

Running, running and more running in September. I got all the way to my last long run of training before a pain in my leg started and wouldn’t go away. I went on holiday to Portugal and gave it a bit of a rest, but that wasn’t working. Oh dear.

October

It was pretty clear that Bournemouth wasn’t going to go how I planned. I went all the same and gave it a go, but dropped out half way. The rest of the month involved watching other people run – I cheered on my sister to her first half marathon and watched friends run Snowdonia Marathon. And I finally started resting properly.

November

I had almost two months off of running, went to the gym and swam a lot. I didn’t really miss running the way I thought I would, which was a relief. Towards the end of the month I started doing a couple of small jogs, and eventually built up to doing a parkrun.

December

Which brings us up to now. I’m back running a few times a week with no pain, I did a 10k the other Sunday with a group of friends and my runners. I’m trying to be sensible about plan for next year and to not enter ALL THE RACES this time.