2024: That was the year that was January to June

The year 2024 started with a New Year’s Day parkrun in the Forest of Dean. On 2nd January, I took my son back to university and the two of us did the Snowdogs sculpture trail in Birmingham in the rain. My daughter had mock exams and my son had end of semester exams. I officially started training for Newport marathon 2024. We had our patio door taken out ready to replace it with new bifold doors and spent weeks with it boarded up.

We went to watch my son in an indoor athletics competition. He had a bit of an injury, so the competition didn’t go too well and he realised he needed to take a break from athletics to recover. Poor Herbert the guinea pig sadly passed away, only a day after I noticed he wasn’t well. My husband and I did our first ever five mile race – The Linda Franks Race. At the end of the month, my husband got Covid for the fourth time. Luckily he wasn’t very ill with it.

February was a pretty quiet month. My son did very well in his exams at university. My daughter did two dance exams – Grade 6 modern and Bronze tap – and got distinction in both of them. My marathon training started stepping up and I ran my fourth fastest parkrun ever at Arrow Valley. The new window was finally installed, which was a huge relief. It looks really good!

March was a very rainy month. It started with a trip to my daughter’s chosen university (which is also my son’s uni!) for an offer holder day. I got first lady at Newent parkrun, which I was very happy with. The marathon training continued and I got up to 18 miles, although I lost a week when I got Covid for the third time. Luckily I was back on track pretty quickly. I even managed to run Weston Super Half five days after testing negative.

My daughter turned 18 and had a lovely birthday. We went to London as part of her birthday present to see two shows – Mamma Mia and The Book of Mormon. We also squeezed in a trip to Bristol to see Everybody’s Talking About Jamie with some very cheap tickets. My eldest went on a solo holiday to Bosnia and was home in time for Easter at the end of the month.

April was a very cold month. My son went to the USA with his university athletics club – touring universities like Harvard and Yale. I’m pleased to say he had the best time. My marathon training reached its peak with a horrible 22 mile run. I ran my fastest ever parkrun at Marine Parade in Weston-super-Mare, which is a fantastic course. My daughter and I went to see The Angels of the North drag show in Bristol. My husband did more travelling for work than usual, including a stressful night stranded in Amsterdam after all the flights were cancelled and the hotels were all full.

I ended the month with Newport Wales marathon. I’d started training with the intention of achieving a London good for age qualifying time. It was a tough run, but I achieved my aim and a 13 minute PB – in a time of 3:54:14. (It was later acknowledge that the course was too long and everyone’s times were adjusted and I was given a time of 3:52:48.)

May started with a trip to see Ru Paul’s Drag Race vs The Rest of the World in Bristol with my daughter. Then on 3rd May, she finished school! It was an emotional day for her. On the bank holiday, my husband ran Milton Keynes half marathon and I went to watch him. I’ve never been to Milton Keynes before and it was my first time watching a race rather than taking part since 2009. The following weekend, my eldest went away to Luxembourg for the weekend specifically to run the half marathon there. He’s been injured, so it didn’t go very well for him, unfortunately. The rest of the world saw the Northern Lights in May. We were gutted that we missed them.

I did the first race in our club’s handicap race series, which means everyone has a staggered start time and theoretically should finish at the same time. The winner is the first to cross the line, rather than the person with the fastest time. We went back to Severn Bridge, my favourite parkrun, and I equalled my PB of 21:18 from last month. It all contributed to me being named the club’s runner of the month, which I was very happy about! My son had six end of year exams throughout May and my daughter had her first A Level on 16th May. She revised well all month. I ended the month with Dymock half marathon – a very small local race – and bagged myself first in my age category.

June started cold and finally warmed up in the middle of the month. We had our annual family trip to Wychwood Festival on 1st June. At the start of the month, my eldest was on holiday. He came home and moved out the next day! He’s found a very nice flat a couple of miles away with his girlfriend. My daughter had eight A Level exams during June, with her last one on 21st. She worked hard for them and she didn’t get stressed, but it was a relief when they were over. The day after her last A Level, she took her Advanced Foundation ballet exam. She had her prom at the end of the month.

It was a busy month for running. My husband and I took part in two more handicap races, as well as Cirencester 10k and Gloucester 10k. I got a new PB at Cirencester and was first in my age category, which I was very happy about. I did parkrun tourism at Worcester Pitchcroft and Cirencester. My husband, daughter and I went to see Hamilton in Bristol for his birthday treat, then we went to see Frozen in London for my daughter’s end of exam treat! My son got the results of his end of year exams – an average of 77%, including 90% in one of his papers – those kind of marks are incredible for medicine.

You can read about the second half of our 2024 here.