Year in Review

The 2025 Christmas Special

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“And they call him, Sandy… Clawssss…!”

Jack Skellington, The Nightmare Before Christmas

Well, where do I start.

With Christmas I suppose. Merry Christmas! Or Merry whatever it is you do or don’t celebrate at this time of year.

Anyway, it wouldn’t be the most ‘wonderful’ time of the year without the Notbuilttorun Christmas Special, delivered as always without fail on December 24th. Apart from that time I posted it in April. But we don’t talk about that.

So before we dive into watching the greatest Christmas film of all time (it’s Die Hard by the way, don’t @ me), let’s take a look back at 2025.

I was trying to think of a word to sum up my running year. If I was one of those influencer wankers, it would probably be something like ‘Epic’ or ‘Humbling.’ But I’m not. So the word is ‘Busy.’

I’ve literally put the miles in this year. As we stand, I’m going to finish up just shy of 2,000. I’m knackered.

It all started innocently enough back in January with the North Tyneside Trail Run – a 12km slog through the mud, snow, and ice of my local Dene.

Life is a Beach

I only did it as a last hurrah before knuckling down to Marathon training a week later. It was hard work, reminded me of why I don’t do cross country, and I vowed never to do it again. Anyway, I’m signed up to do it again.

As just mentioned, my main focus of the year was running the Belfast Marathon in May. 16 weeks of training started in January and, bizarrely, I really enjoyed it.

The Marathon itself could not have gone better. Perfect running conditions, I felt fantastic on the day, finishing just under my target time in 4:06.

It was definitely the high point of my year. Hell, it’s probably the high point of my running ever. I was buzzing. I’m still buzzing. I’m a Marathoner now, and I TELL EVERYONE.

Did I mention the Marathon?

After the epic feat of completing that Marathon, it would have been easy to stick the feet up for the last 6 months of the year, stuffing my face with carbs and getting podgy.

Instead, within weeks I attacked three 10k races – Cookson 10k , The Blaydon Race and the Tynedale Pie and Peas 10k. On all three occasions I smashed my 10k PB, taking advantage of the superpowers acquired from 16 weeks of hard slog between January and May.

Levitating at the Cookson

I felt good all summer if I’m honest. To the point that I thought I had a great chance to also PB my Half Marathon time. In July, at the Newcastle Half Marathon, I went for it, hitting an amazing (for me) 1:44:50.

I like this photo because of its shitness

I follow this up in August with the Blyth 10k, where I’m robbed of another 10k PB – the new course being measured short by 0.02 of a KM. The swines.

Robbed at Bylth

Then in September it’s an old favourite and an ever present on the running calendar – The Great North Run. The M25 of organised races, I knew there was no way I would find the space to match my sub 1:45 from a couple of months before. However, I still manage to break my course PB, finishing in 1:46:20.

Bossing the GNR

Another race I do every single year is the North Tyneside 10k. Usually held on Easter Sunday, due to work going on down the sea front, it’s postponed till the end of September. And, yes, you’ve guessed it, my 10k PB falls again. This time it’s a 45:26.

NT10k PB

Having then said I never do anything that even vaguely resembles cross country, in October I somehow sign up and run the Coxhoe Trail Run. Thankfully, it’s rain, mud and cold free, but hard bastard work. I still do a credible 46:38 on quite a hilly course.

Nee Mud Mate

Then, finally, in November, it’s my favourite race of the year, the Brampton to Carlisle 10 Mile Road Race. A glorified club piss up with a pesky 10 mile race beforehand, I feel fantastic on the day and put in probably my best performance of the year. I knock nearly 4 minutes off my 10 mile PB, with a 1:15:56.

Brampton to Carlisle

Phew. What a year. Not even mentioning the running I managed to squeeze in during trips to London, Edinburgh, and France.

There we go. The Christmas Special is done. You can crack out Die Hard 2 now (actually more of a festive film than the first one), tuck into a cheeky Toblerone, and breathe.

See you in 2026.

The 2024 Christmas Special

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”You sit on a throne of lies!”
Buddy Elf, Elf

Let’s start by getting straight in and addressing the Elephant in the room. A Christmas advert so bad, I want to rip out my eyes and shove them in my ears. No, not that one. Friggin Morrisons.

Morrisons, with their shite oven glove puppets that would have Jim Hensen weeping. Shite oven glove puppets murdering one of the greatest movie songs of all time. And when I say murder, I’m talking the kind of murders they’d do in medieval times. Like, proper brutal shit. Not only that, it’s also butchered part of my childhood. Scott Baio would be rolling in his grave. If he was dead.

Anyway, now we’ve got that out the way, it’s time for the Christmas Special. I’m here to spread festive cheer and review my running year. So pop another log on the fire, have yet another day drink that has you half pissed by mid afternoon, and let’s get stuck in.

I’d not be overstating things when I say 2024 has been my best running year ever. I’d be staggered if I ever have a better one. I would never have thought it back in January, when I was put kicking and screaming by the club coaches into the group above. So the faster, more intense one.

For 6 weeks I hung off the back of that group, cursing the coaches who put me here, and wondering where the enjoyment had gone. Then, it suddenly clicked. I was keeping up. I pushed through to survivor mode.

For a few months though, I was knackered. Despite the fact I was being coached in endurance, my long runs were going to shit. Slow and ploddy. Everything was an effort. Was the extra intensity improving my running, or had I taken on too much?

There were some signs of improvement early doors however. At the end of February the club organised a 5k Time Trial to see where we were all at. I went balls to the wall and ran the fastest 5k of my life – a 23:40. I then went on holiday to Greece in May, drank a shit load of Mythos, and ran a 10k PB in a race less than 3 hours after landing back in the country. Who said my days of fast times had gone? Well, I did.

Then, during the summer, I popped out one morning for my usual long weekend run. A 10 miler on a route I’ve been doing for years. No expectations, no real plan, just plod round it as normal. I set off and I felt good. I felt loose. I felt..fast. But the biggest change was how I felt as the run went on. Rather than get tired out, I felt stronger the longer it got.

When I was done I felt great, but only in a good run kind of way. When I uploaded it on Strava however, it announced a 10 miler PB. By a couple of minutes as well. Interesting.

Suddenly, I was very aware of my speed and times. Both in Club Sessions and when running on my own. I was definitely getting faster. I was comfortably staying in the pack at club, and felt really strong on my long runs.

I’ve never been one of those runners who really cares much about times. Certainly not improving times. I’ve always entered into races etc with goal times. As in, ‘it would be nice to come in under 2 hours’ and so on. Suddenly though, I’m very self aware that they are improving.

As part of that, I started taking a keen interest in my Half Marathon PB. Sitting at 1:53, I noted that my current 10 mile pace would easily knock a couple of minutes off that. I just need to hold that pace for another 5k. Easier said than done.

A month before the Great North Run, I head out to complete the Half Marathon distance as a training run. Usually this is a ‘let’s see where I’m at’ run, as well as an attempt to mentally reassure myself that I can complete the 13.1 miles comfortably.

It’s another comfortable long run, and I realise it’s going to be quick. I hit an 8:25 pace, with a 1:50:31 finish. Just 6 months earlier, I was parring around 1:54.

30 seconds plus change off dipping under 1:50 for the first time in my life. It’s far too tempting to not take a shot at. But not at the GNR. I already had a plan for that, and that was a no pressure run I wanted to enjoy. Which I did.

Fast forward to the middle of October, and I’m ready to make my move. I’ve already worked out that I just need an 8:23 pace to hit my goal. I’m going to be doing something I never do – keep an eye on my pace.

As there is no wind, the plan is to head 6.5 miles directly North on the coast, then turn. When I do turn, my pace is well on track and I feel great. Is this really on? Well, yes it is. I don’t fade at all second half of the run. In fact, I get quicker.

At 11 mile I know I’m going to do it. I’ve never had that confidence before with my running. It’s a great feeling on the last mile knowing this has gone to plan. I finish with an 8:19 pace and bag a 1:49:23 finish. I’ve broken the back off 1:50. After 15 years of trying, I’m in the 1:40 club. I’m absolutely delighted.

We’re not finished there though. In November and December the PBs keep tumbling. At the Club Grand Prix I run my fastest even 5k, first time under 23 mins, recording a 22:57. A month later in the next Grand Prix, I do it again. This time a 22:33.

And as I wrote about in my last blog, at the Brampton to Carlisle 10 mile Road Race I break my 10k and 10 mile PBs. Its official, 2024 has been undoubtedly my greatest running year ever.

It almost feels a bit different this year going through the goals I set in January. Usually, it’s self deprecating with tongue firmly in cheek. This year though. Anyway, let’s take a look at that list..

  • Run 1,000 miles – Another year, another 1,000 plus in the bank. It’s also another record year. As I write this with a week of the year left, I’m on 1,500.
  • Run a Half Marathon – I’ve waffled on about my Half Marathon journey already in this post. I did run two official races at the distance. The Great North Run, which I really enjoyed and reviewed, was the main one. I did also run the Newcastle Half in July. This was a new race to me, and I only signed up to pace someone else. I got them to a 2:10 PB, so a very satisfying run. I’d like a proper crack at it, so it’s on my radar for 2025.
  • Run the Brampton to Carlisle 10 miler – I certainly did, and it didn’t disappoint. Piss up and PBs. I’ll be on the bus in 2025.
  • Race in the Club Grand Prix – I missed the first one, the 10k race, as I was away on holiday. However, the other three Pre-Christmas races I’ve completed and am currently on a 5k PB run. 23:27, 22:57, and a 22:33. I expect this will level off for the remaining four Post-Christmas.
  • Run on Holiday – This year I’ve been lucky enough to run round Zante, Warsaw, Edinburgh, and Shropshire. I continue to make no apologies for this.
  • Yoga Everyday – Now this one has been an underrated gem. I’ve managed to do at least 15 mins a day, every day. I really think it’s made a huge difference. It’s helping with recovery, I feel more loose, less stiff, and I’ve had no noticeable niggles for the first year in donkeys. I can’t recommend this to fellow runners enough.

Phew. There we have it. What a year. Back in January when I set these original targets, I never would have envisioned achieving even half of what I have. 2025 is either going to be interesting, or a bit of a damp squib. To be honest, I’ll just be happy to keep enjoying it.

So, Merry Christmas, however you do or don’t celebrate it. I’m cracking open a cold one and eyeing up those Brooks in the sale..

See you in 2025.

The 2022 Christmas Special

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‘He’s a kid. Kids are stupid. I know I was.’

Marv, Home Alone

With any luck, it’s Christmas Eve, you’ve settled down with a nice cup of hot chocolate in front of a roaring open fire, and you’re thinking ‘what shit is this clown coming up with now.’ I’ll take it as a compliment, really.

The last two Christmas Specials have been pretty negative in tone – ie hasn’t the past year been an absolute shit show. This year though, we can be far more positive. I mean, apart from a War in Ukraine, an Energy Crisis, the Cost of Living, pretty much a General Strike, and a hugely incompetant Government, it’s been ok hasn’t it?

On a personal and running note, it’s been a mixed bag for me, as you’ll see from the list below. I’ve had my first injury free year since 2015, but was disappointed with the performances in both my Half Marathons. This prompted me to finally hit peak hypocrisy, by joining my local Running Club, which turned out to be one of the best things I’ve ever done. My fitness levels are up, my pace is quicker, and I’ve given myself that extra bit of motivation you always need during those hard Winter months of crap weather and short days.

I got a new job, which has eliminated my commute and given me more of a running window, which in turn has helped piss my family off less (runners know what I mean). It’s also given me more time to get back into Yoga which I have, big style. As well as doing one Virtual session a week, I also get in 3 or 4 shorter ones now. Namaste motherfuckers. 

As always, at the start of the year I set myself some goals. So, drum roll please..

2022 GOALS (AND HOW THEY WENT)

Update the notbuilttorun website a lot more – 7 posts this year. That’s like 1 a month. Sort of. It’s one more than last year. I’ve also spread them out much better this year rather than front/back ending as I have done in the past. Look, I’mtrying my best ok, WHY ARE YOU JUDGING ME? I’ve also had more hits to the site since I launched it in the 2018 pre-fuckwit dystrophia world we now live in. I’m huge in Ecuador. 

Run Every Day (RED) in January – Nailed it like a Messiah to the cross. It is getting harder though, as I get older and creakier. A quick look at my Strava in January (I need to look back to check, I can’t even remember what I had for tea yesterday) shows a lot of Treadmill runs and only two weekend long runs. Basically, it looks like the weather was a bastard and I mostly took cover indoors on the travelator blasting Eternal’s Greatest Hits. God I loved Louise.

Run 1,000 miles – I’m on a roll here. As I write this, I sit on 1,236 miles for the year. I’ll fall just shy of 1,300 by the time the year ends, but should hopefully pass my biggest ever total of 1,257. Although, the snow and ice might have a say in thatfinal total. Piss off Winter!

Get a PB – PBs? Aren’t they the kind of things new runners and young people get? As predicted, I haven’t had any milestone distance PBs. The days of getting faster 5k and 10ks are over. However, due to the quick sessions at the aforementioned Club training nights I have been getting a surge of Strava Segment PBs over the last 3 months. It’sbecause the swine’s make me run fast!

Run a Half Marathon – Now this one is complicated. I did achieve this – I ran two – but they were both piss poor. Firstlyin May I ran the Sunderland Half and wasn’t happy with it. My arse dropped out in the last couple of miles. I had a shitter. Fast forward to the Great North Run in September and the same story. Arse. Shitter. As I mentioned in the intro above, this was the catalyst for joining the Running Club. Stop being shit at Half Marathons. I need to fall back in love with it again in 2023.

Run longer than 13.1 miles – Every year I put this in, every year I fail to do anything about it. I don’t even have injury or time as an excuse this year. It will go on my 2023 Goals as well. Next year I have a feeling though. Just see.

300 miles on Zwift – Oh dear. I wrote a piece earlier in the year about how I’d fallen out with Zwift. The RunPod was forever dropping out, and no amount or battery change, calibration, or standing on my head was helping. I then turned my Treadmill room (don’t you all have one of those?) into an Office to work from home so there was no space for my makeshift-box-with-the-ipad-on that I was using to run Zwift. In October, I decided to give it another go, with the ‘genius’ idea of blutacking the iPad to the Treadmill. This worked a treat…until the 4th time when it came crashing off. Pondering my next move to be honest.

Run on Holiday – I sort of went on holiday, and I sort of didn’t. Not abroad anyway, but I did pop off to Shropshire to stay with my wife’s family. I go there every year and I run there every year. It’s Hell. I keep meaning to write a post about it. It’s like a Boot Camp, the place is just a collection of hills from which there is no escape. However, it doesn’t half do me the world of good. 

Remain in Employment – I know I always say I’m staying away from politics but lets be honest, the UK is a bit of a shit show at the minute isn’t it? Therefore I continue to prayer and worship all Deities, Gods, and Cults that I remain able to pay the bills and provide for the family. In 2022 I not only managed to remain in Employment, I also allowed myself to be poached like a footballer to go and signed for a bigger rival. So far, so good. In fact, it’s going too well. It’s a trap.

Avoid catching/passing on COVID – When we think COVID visited Casa Notbuilttorun way back in 2020 (before Tests), everyone was ill except me. I felt fine. Apart from one thing – for a week I had painful chilblains on my toes. I’ve never suffered from chilblains. In November I got a little cold, and then for a couple of weeks after I got really painful chilblains on my fingers. So this was probably a fail.

So, a year of change but the most normal year we’ve had since 2019. Scary isn’t it. Who knows what 2023 has in store for us. The way things are going, Nuclear War and the Hunger Games. Christ, this is cheerful. 

As always, I wish you all a stress-free Christmas and New Year and hope your running year has been positive and enjoyable – whatever your pace, distance, or goals.

Right. I’m off to make a start on the Pringles. 

Merry Christmas!

The Coronacoaster Christmas Special

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“Now I have another reason to hate Christmas.”

Kate Beringer – Gremlins (1984)

I’ve been sitting on a blog post draft for nearly 10 months now. In a nutshell, it was a massive whinge about how my running had suddenly gone to shit since I turned 40. It was me complaining about how I was finding it hard, lacked motivation, had picked up a injury that I couldn’t shake. It’s working title was ‘Fuck off February.’ I finally just took the ‘fuck it’ approach and published it in November.

What a 1st world problem snowflake I turned out to be. I write this in May June mid July late December where we are 428 weeks – I think, fuck knows – into an alleged half arsed ‘Lockdown.’ Now, I’m not going to get political in this post. I have some fairly strong political feelings but this is a running blog so won’t be boring your bollocks off with that. Plus, well, politics is a pretty emotive subject. Especially on social media. By emotive, I mean you post a political opinion, and someone from the opposite leaning tells you to fuck off.

So, I won’t going down that rabbit hole.

Anyway, February was terrible, have I mentioned that? I turned 40 at the beginning of it and honestly, I properly wasn’t arsed. I didn’t make a big thing of it, no big party or giant clown badges. I even managed to keep it quiet at work. Well, no-one asked. I know this makes me sound like a right anti-social bastard, but I’m not really. I have a good circle of close family and friends but I’m just not showy. I don’t go round broadcasting stuff and saying ‘look at me! look at me!’ I’m even shite at keeping this ‘look at me!’ blog up to date.

I wrote about how shit my February was here. This all seems like 1st world problems with hindsight, but I did chuckle at a re-read of my last paragraph:

‘I have two races (snigger) coming up. North Tyneside 10k in April, Sunderland Half Marathon in May. Unless something dramatic happens between now and then, I’m going to be in nowhere near any kind of shape to run them’

Because something dramatic did happen.

Half arsed Lockdown. The world shut down as we all were instructed to avoid humans we did and didn’t know in case we lurgy each other.

Luckily, or unluckily however you look at it, I had my ‘trusty’ treadmill. A battered and sweat covered Reebok number, well over a decade old now and still going. I spent the first two weeks isolated banging out daily 5ks on it whilst listening to some dubious song choices.

Two weeks later, I decided to venture out for my first ‘proper’ run. Let’s be honest fellow runners – take out the apocalyptic, economic, and health disaster of this whole clusterfuck – but early half arsed lockdown was quite an enjoyable time to run wasn’t it? Someone on Twitter told me off for saying that. But it’s true.

I was out every morning during April and it was bliss. No people, no cars, it was fanfuckingtastic. I ran on the road without the worry of ending up flung over a bonnet.

My Races got cancelled. The North Tyneside 10k was the first to go then the Sunderland City Half, and finally – after a lot of procrastinating and general pissing about – the GNR toppled.

I worked from home for 4 months, avoided Furlough and Redundancy, drank too much coffee, and grazed on too many things that make you fat. But boy did I run. Controversial off topic opinion – working from home is shit. Long term I worry about where it’s going to leave us as a species. Similar to the fat hover seat humans in Wal-E probably. When I was working from home, I did on average 25 miles LESS walking a week. That’s about 1,200 miles less a year. That’s not healthy. We’ll be fat as butter as a nation within 2 years.

Despite knowing it was going to be cancelled, I trained for the GNR anyway and ran it virtually, hitting a bizarre half marathon PB in the process. It helped keep me sane. In fact, running has kept me sane in 2020. In a year of restrictions, running has been my freedom. All of us who had running before lockdown were lucky to have it as a way of escape. Plus, it looks like many more have discovered it. For all the cancelled Parkruns and events, running is probably as healthier than its ever been. Weird.

So, what does 2021 have in store. Well, it’s the year Mad Max was set in. That’s all I’m saying. For me though, there’s allegedly at least a 10k and two Half Marathons. Will they go ahead? At this point, who knows. What I learnt in 2020 is that it doesn’t really matter. Running isn’t about medals and t-shirts, it’s about keeping your head and your body right. Here endeth the sermon.

So, make sure the strangest Christmas you’ll probably ever experience is a Merry one. Just think, for all the people you love that you can’t see this year, there are twice as many bell ends that you can now avoid. Every cloud and all that. Predictions for next year? 2021 can’t be shitter than 2020. JINX.