First masters race, running alongside my teammates from Blackrock AC.
Family hike up Three Rock.
Venla building a snowman.
Trip to Westport.
Around The Park, Around The Clock.
Riitta and Pauli visiting.
Trip to Bunratty Castle.
Trip to Belfast.
Gran’s birthday garden party.
Trip to Shannon.
DUCC swim session.
EcoTrail Wicklow.
Dublin Marathon.
Kim’s wedding.
Trip to Galway.
DUCC mini triathlon.
Iveagh Sports Ground junior parkrun.
I’m old. How old? In January I ran my first masters race. Masters is a running category for those over 35. With age comes infirmity and I was ill for quite a lot of the month. But I did attend Mark Knopfer’s guitar auction and Running For Beginners reached 100,000 members.
The San Francisco 49ers were back at the Super Bowl in February. Even though they lost it was an excellent game. I ran at the Dublin Universities colours xc race and did not come last. We managed to fit in a family hike up Three Rock. Unfortunately, my ankle was causing me problems so that was the last run for a while.
There was snow in March. Despite not being able to run, I got plenty of parkrun tourism in, walking Poppintree, Tolka Valley and Malahide. We celebrated Elina’s birthday and St Patrick’s Day. Jasmin Paris became the first woman to complete the Barkley Marathons. Vaughan Gething became First Minister of Wales, making it the first time all four home nations leaders were women or persons of colour.
I launched my strength and conditioning course on on Udemy in April and set my parkrun walking pb at Royal Canal parkrun, finishing in 33:38. We took a trip to Westport where unfortunately I was a DNF at Westport marathon. I did some more parkrun tourism at River Valley and Donabate. Sean Conway came to town and Triathlon For Beginners reached 100,000 members.
I celebrated my 350th parkrun in May. I also completed the Blackrock 5k, Sandyford 5k, and the fourth edition of Around The Park, Around The Clock. We visited Ardgillan Castle for some more parkrun tourism. Jonas Deichmann started his attempt to complete 120 full distance triathlons in 120 days. Tadej Poga?ar dominated the Giro, Leeds lost another play-off final and British were relegated at the ice hockey world championships. Switzerland lost in the final but made up for it by winning Eurovision.
After three months of the bike shop trying to fix my bike, I finally got it back in June. I did more parkrun tourism at Russborough, Carlow, Kilkenny and Vicarstown. The latter earned me my 50th different event. I also ran the Thoroughbred 10k. We visited the national reptile zoo and, more importantly, the Chocolate Garden just in time for Father’s Day. I launched my Emotion-Focused Therapy course. We said goodbye to Michael Mosley and hello to the new Anxiety Leeds portal.
I tried to make the most of having my bike back in July and we were delighted to host Elina’s mum and Pauli. I also started a movement streak to see how it would impact my mental health. We visited Belfast and took in the zoo, Ulster Folk Museum and Queen’s parkrun. I also took a trip to Oldbridge parkrun. England’s men’s team made it to another final at Euro 2024 and Mark Cavendish broke the all time record for most stage wins at the Tour de France. Julian Assange was freed.
Venla and I made the most of the summer holidays in August, visiting the funfair and the Explorium. We also took trips to Flamingo Land, Bolton Abbey and Bunratty Castle. We celebrated Gran’s birthday with a garden party. I took part in the Cycle Against Suicide sportive and did some parkrun tourism at Thorp Perrow and Illaunmanagh, completing the namely challenge. The other half of the month was a blur of watching the Oympics.
We relaunched DUCC in September and watched even more sport with the Paralympics. I launched my Occupational Psychology course and reached 100,000 students on Udemy. Jonas Deichmann successfully completed Challenge 120.
Despite a long of illness in September I managed to stumble around the 10k at EcoTrail Wicklow and completed one of the most challenging races in my life at Dublin marathon. There was lots more to celebrate with our wedding anniversary, Venla’s birthday, my birthday, Halloween and Kim’s wedding. We finally found the club bikes and got some autumn cycling done.
We visited Galway in November and yes, there was a parkrun. I ticked off University of Galway as well as Edwin Carolan Community earlier in the month. UoG allowed me to tick off the spell “parkrun” challenge. It was a busy month for DUCC, too, with our first track day of the year and hosting a mini triathlon.
Finally, in December, we kept active with hiking and parkrun tourism, as well as celebrating the launch of a new junior parkrun event. All of that added up to me completing the parkrun obsessive achievement by doing 50 parkruns in the same year. We also finished the triathlon year with a swim video analysis session. Then we did Christmassy things including meeting Santa, Venla’s winter concert, baking and plenty of time with family and friends.
I have a new social media project where I’m posting regular videos to remind you that you are enough just as you are. Chris Is Proud Of You.
Last week I was thrilled to complete the parkrun obsessive challenge. Which is the achievement you get for completing 50 parkruns in a year.
It’s a tough ask, although New Year’s Day and Christmas Day mean you can miss up to four Saturdays if you complete those. I made it to 45 in 2018 and 2019 and then 46 last year. But around September I realised I had only missed two so far and if I could be consistent, I could get to 50.
That made for some nervous times with multiple storms, including Storm Darragh cancelling 16 of the 20 parkruns near me including all of my locals. But I made it! In fact, I managed to end the year on 52. parkrun has been such an important anchor over the last 18 months and I’m looking forward to plenty more in 2025.
For the final club swim of the year we did a video analysis session. It’s so much easier to work out where you can improve when you can see yourself swimming. So we did just that and took the footage to the pub for a Christmas drink and video review.
I’m really pleased with my overall body position. Lots to improve, of course, and some great action points for my hand entry, catch and pull.
Last week, Santa visited Elina’s office and met two bears.
Every year, Venla’s school puts on a winter concert. This year, Venla’s class sang Try Everything from the film Zootropolis. Well done, Venla!
I haven’t made bread for years. But I recently started experimenting with making my own butter, so for the hospital Christmas lunch I hade a few loaves of focaccia with some lemon and sea salt butter. Went down very well. One of the most important things I’v elarnt from Elina is that you can absolutely bake your way into people’s hearts.
What’s the standard unit of measurement for evelvation gain? TrainingPeaks has gone with giraffes and I’m on board with it.
More Than Yorkshire Puddings: Food, Stories and Over 100 Recipes from God’s Own Country is a cookbook by Elaine Lemm.
Lots of nice stuff in here. Again, I didn’t make too many of the recipes, but probably more than Coast, and I did make a few of them several times. If you’re unfamiliar with Yorkshire food, this is a good guide.
