2025 is not yet four months old, but from a running perspective, it’s already up there with my most eventful years. I’ve been meaning to blog for ages, but now that I am finally in a position to do so, I’ll have to be concise to squeeze lots in, having just completed my third marathon in nine weeks, after the longest and most dramatic injury layoff of my life!

January:

Fresh from a 2024 where I’d chalked up my highest annual volume (5034 km), PBs at HM and 10km, a marathon victory and my debut representation for England, I started 2025 full of confidence, knowing that it would take something freakish to stop me hitting my goals this year…

…and that freak event took all of four days. On Jan 4^th, I wanted to start the year with a bang (i.e. new PB) at Battersea Half, but on just the second lap of nine, I fell head over heels trying to avoid the congestion of lapped runners (really biting my tongue here, but I will just say this was an accident waiting to happen on this course, and I am very disappointed by the lack of meaningful response / action from the race organisers). I somehow got back up and ran the next 11 miles with my head spinning, finishing the race in 71:54 (adrenaline has a lot to answer for here), before soon finding out I had sustained a broken big toe, broken rib, and two badly injured knees.

The toe and rib took about two and four weeks to resolve, respectively, but one of the knees remained painful for much longer. Running was off the cards for the foreseeable, but in the early stages, I remained hopeful that I had enough of a fitness buffer to be able to cross-train to a 2:29 marathon in Seville, my goal race for the year, in late February.

February:

The weeks ticked by, Seville approached, and even walking downhill / stairs, let alone running, still wasn’t possible. Hopes of sub 2:30 vanished, and it just became a question of whether I could (or should) even make the start line. Some incredibly generous and understanding advice from specialist medical and physio colleagues, and then a timely consultation from a brilliant sports physio, filled me with some optimism. However, I probably just did ever so slightly too much too soon as his techniques and recommendations started to work, and inevitably the pain returned.

Seville was part of a bigger family holiday to Spain, so there was never any doubt that we would be going, but it was very unusual setting off to the airport with my trusty old Alphaflys, still full of doubt as to whether I would run. Of course, I was desperate to experience what would be a new event for me, but would doing so, after two months of almost no running, risk long term injury that extended way into 2025?

After the expo on Friday, I set off for a make-or-break 25 min easy jog around Seville’s main park (Maria Luisa). The idea was that if I felt any pain at all, it wouldn’t be worth running on Sunday. I scored my pain between 0-1/10, but given that this was while on extreme high alert, it was essentially a zero. Decision made: I would rest on Saturday (well, as much as you can rest while on holiday with a toddler), and line up on Sunday.

I’ll cut to the chase here; it went better than I could possibly have expected. I had intended to jog 8 minute miles until pain arrived, then be sensible, and stop. However, I spotted a familiar face within the first mile, and ran with him (Chris) at 6:50 pace instead. This felt just as easy aerobically, and had the two distinct advantages of eating through the miles much more quickly, and having someone to talk to throughout. Game changer.

Somehow, the knee behaved itself, and I got to the finish. From a cardiovascular perspective, it was all easy enough, but my word, the body was not used to the impact of running for 3 hours after so little volume this year. The finish time was 2h58: my slowest marathon for a decade. However, this was one of my happiest marathon experiences, given what had preceded it, and would turn out to be the major turning point (so far) of 2025.

March:

More importantly than the race itself, the next week of Spanish holiday passed without any subsequent knee grumbles, and if anything, it felt better than at any stage this year. Who knew that running a marathon was the answer? Several days of sunny runs along Malaga coast paths and Madrid parks were among the happiest in memory. Two months of no running probably sounds so trivial to a non-runner, but you really don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.

Next up was Surrey Half in mid-March. Another new event for me, and, unlike Seville, a chance to now run hard and see how much fitness had really been lost. The answer was probably about two minutes over the HM distance. In perfect conditions, on a beautiful (albeit undulating) course, I clocked 73 dead. Another positive step back to race sharpness.  

April:

My older brother and family relocated to Bratislava, Slovakia, a year ago, and it was about time we visited them. Naturally, a visit had therefore been excitedly arranged (pre-injury) to coincide with Bratislava Marathon. The long-term plan had originally been to prioritise this race, and potentially then ‘enjoy’ a low-stress London Marathon three weeks later. However, still without much marathon specific work in my legs, I ummed and ahhed and dropped down to the Bratislava Half on the same day, then at the last minute changed my mind back to the full marathon (with thanks here to the very accommodating organisers). My coach agreed, and asked me to run it to ~90-95% effort (in terms of usual marathon heart rate ranges) and just see what that produced timewise, while saving the legs for London, to some extent.

I absolutely loved the Bratislava Marathon experience, and would highly recommend it to anyone fancying a new race. I had the unique opportunity to represent the UK at the flag bearing opening ceremony (pictured), and was also given entry to the elite pen, which was very generous, much appreciated, and as it turned out, very helpful, given the race day conditions.

The forecast was for something like a 15 C drop from Saturday to Sunday, which we all refused to believe…until we got outside and faced the sub-zero conditions and strong winds. The elite pen access at least allowed me to stand next to a blast heater in my short shorts until the last possible moment before heading to the start!

I had expected something like 2:45, perhaps sub 2:40 as a top-end possibility, but came through with 2:33, as 2^nd place M40 and 12^th overall, while sticking diligently to the slightly lower HR ranges. I was truly chuffed and surprised, before being reduced to a shivering mess, waiting in the snow for a ludicrously long time for my turn on the podium (pictured), not understanding a single word of the hour or so of Slovakian presentation commentary that preceded it.

Some more cracking holiday running followed, both in Bratislava itself (in the woods and on Danube river paths), and Budapest, which is a genuine runner’s dream, with incredible rubberised running tracks round their major parks.

Last but not least for spring 2025: London Marathon. The drawback from a good outcome at Bratislava was that I now had no excuse not to run hard in my home major, as clearly I was not a million miles away from 2024 shape. Another week or so of marathon training was squeezed in, before a very steep taper, then all guns blazing with perfect carb load, and pin-point fuelling, conditioning, race strategy and preparation. Could there even be a chance of 2:29 here, well ahead of (post-injury) schedule, if conditions were kind?

Well, they weren’t kind. A lovely looking forecast soon turned into a nasty one, and the official heat warning emails from London Marathon started to pile up in the final 48 hours pre-race, as warm conditions became inevitable. To some extent, this actually took the pressure off performance again, but I was certainly also nervous about running a marathon in 20C and pure sunshine.

I let heart rate rule over pace again, drank quite possibly as much water during these 26.2 miles as I have in all my other 15 marathons combined (I’m barely even exaggerating here), and made use of all nine of the on-course showers. The famous London crowds were genuinely louder than ever this year (the impact of morning sun and a few extra drinks no doubt), and it made for an intense experience throughout.  

I went through halfway in 75:30, so sub 2:30 wasn’t totally out of the question at that stage with a good negative split, but also never really likely, with the rapidly rising temperatures and cardiac drift. In the final 5km, I thought a course PB (2:30:54) was more or less nailed on, so I held back ever so slightly, but in fact my maths was wrong (this happens, after two hours of hard running in the sun), and I ended up just outside, with 2:31:12.

Still, my third fastest marathon of 16, my second fastest London of seven, and a very solid, disciplined effort on a day when so many others faltered in the heat. One very weird statistic is that I finished 210^th overall both this year and last year at London. And as I put on Instagram, although my quest for 2:29 continues, I have never been more sure after this performance that it will come one day…further freak race injuries notwithstanding.