A nice cup of tea makes it stop hurting by onthefloor04

Yes yes yes I know you're not interested but this is for my own records not yours.

So the final race of the year is done and dusted, and that leaves me looking back on 2011 (like the god Janus – oh please please please let his first name be Hugh). So this is what it looked like.

January
1) County XC Championships – Shotover – 8.5km – 35:30 – 42/247
Meh – one to forget.

February
2) Ox Mail XC (Race 4) - Cirencester – 8.5km – 36:42 – 52/236
Even worse I’d say.

March
3) Ox Mail XC (Race 5) – Swindon – 8.5km – 32:30 – 48/197
Finally a reasonable race, much improved but still not good enough. Team (captained by yours truly) managed promotion by winning 2^nd Division.

4) Teddy Hall Relays – 2 legs run – 3.6 miles each – 20:45 & 22:10
Thrown to the lions on the first leg and enjoyed the second. Average but not close to my best.

5) Banbury 15 – 1:33:30 – 17/?
Ok for ¾ of the race – tired towards the end. Lack of speed and stamina. Winning Team

6) Carterton 10k – 36:13 – 4/190
If I’d been fit I reckon I could have challenged the winner. Overall quite pleased with it as a race and I’ll be returning. (winning team)

April
My Beautiful baby daughter was born this much – pretty muchdestroying my focus for the rest of the season, and you know what? She’s worth every dropped second, failed PB and missed training session.

7) County Road-Relays – Hook Norton – 3.25 miles – 18:25
Team bronze – fairly happy with my run here. Tea Boy broke the course record.

May
8) Charlton on Otmoor Motavation Race 1 – 4.1 miles – 23:14 – 23/209
Fell off towards the end, Beaten by BigBob for the first time for the season. A trend that I’m not fond of.

9) Blenheim 7k – 25:23 – 4/429
Bit of pot hunting really, beaten by BigBob again.

10) Charndon 5k – 17:11 PB – 17/224
Reasonable – a PB but I should be breaking 17 minutes, I’m sure. 2^nd Team

11) Bletchingdon Motavation – 4.25 miles – 24:13 – 26/349
Bleh, very average

June
12) Otmoor Challenge Off-Road Half Marathon – 1:31:33 – 23/316
Awful race – stomach problems from 5 miles, 2^nd team but I wanted a top 5 finish really.

13) County 5,000m track race – 17:22 – 8/10
My first ever track race, Quite happy with it really. I didn’t come last which was the plan.

July
14) Combe Motavation – 3.9 miles – 22:19 – 35/340
Another lacklustre performance

15) Hornton 6 – 35:52 – 7/132
A rare good performance for the year – still smarting about BOC outkicking me on the downhill finish though.

August
17) Iffley Road Milers Meet – 1 mile track race – 507 – 2/14
Pretty happy with the race should have won but allowed myself to be outgunned on the home stretch, a lack of track smarts I suppose.

18) Hooky 5 – 35:07 – 16/280
Not too bad, almost felt like I was getting some fitness back by now. I wasn’t of course but you know. It was ok whilst it lasted.

September
19) Oxford Motavation – 4.1 miles – 22:54 – 27/323
Ok in places, depressing to be so far back down the field after last year.

20) Witney 10 – 61:05 – 8/171
Easily my most accomplished trace of the year – despite a relatively slow time I controlled my section of the race to help the team to take 1^st place. Proud of that one.

21) Woodstock 12 – 1:15:38 – 13/161
From the sublime to the ridiculous, when will I ever get this race right? Despite hating it, it was quite absurdly the fastest I’ve ever run there. Go figure?

22) SEAA Road Relays – 6k – 21:29
Ok I guess, it was an experience and I was happy enough with my performance.

October
23) Hanney 5 – 28:27 – 11/199
2^nd Team but County Champions!? Still not fit enough to do myself justice. Disappointing really. Getting a little faster though.

24) Abingdon Marathon – 3:06:36 – 115/777
Rubbish really – went off too quick for my fitness and paid the price. On the plus side it was a good training run.

November
25) Oxford Mail XC (Race 1) Acott Under Wychwood  - 8.5k – 33:08 – 37/321
And so the comeback begins – back where I’m most comfortable and finally beating BigBob for the first time this year.

26) Eynsham 10k – 36:23 – 32/611
An average run on a disappointing day for the club to finish off the road season.

27) Oxford Mail XC (Race 2) Culham – 8.5k – 33:44 – 41/289
Fairly happy with that – still room for improvement but hopefully the comeback is still on a very long and winding road for the new year.

Overall it’s been a disappointing running year for me with the birth of our daughter distracting me from training which has shown.
Running wise there have certainly been more lows than highs especially with the club losing out in the Grand Prix competitions. However it has helped me to focus a bit more and despite knowing that my training will still be affected by the bairn I hope that 2012 will be a more successful year.
I suppose I now have to figure out what my goals are for the year.
Plus it’s an Olympic Year when could be a better time to kick on for world domination?