Happily Ever After

Life in The Rural Retreat with a beautiful wife, three cats, garden wildlife, a camera, a computer – and increasing amounts about running

Earlier posts can be found on Adventures of a Lone Bass Player, where this blog began life. Recent entries can be found here.

Another Year Over

by Russell Turner - 20:37 on 30 December 2025

It’s been another busy running year with 1,000 miles covered (including some walking) and 18 races run, mostly at a pedestrian pace. It would have been 20 races if I’d not been poorly for the Durham 10k and forgotten vital ID for the Kinloss 10k, held inside the barracks. Lots of quantity, little quality; nowhere near a PB this year, although I enjoyed most of the runs. I’m still trying to forget Edinburgh.

Spending on running, that notably ‘cheap’ sport, reached almost £4,000 this year, the bulk of it on travel and accommodation. Maybe I should stop keeping track.

A quieter year for City Limits provided more free weekends, which helped with the race diary. 2026 might be equally quiet but Sod’s Law means that of the few confirmed gigs, four clash with events I’d pencilled in. There’ll be no return to the X-Border, Killin, River Ness or Yorkshire Marathon/10 Mile, and I’ll only get to the York 10k thanks to a stand-in bass player stepping in that weekend. The revived Kinloss-Lossie HM in February is also a non-starter because there’s a wedding the night before, two hours from home in Dornie. Three hours sleep may not be enough before running 13.1 miles.

This year’s medal haul

It’s swings and roundabouts, though. A cancelled wedding in September means I can enter the Great North Run ballot next week with a clear conscience. I must be due another ballot success.

The final long run of 2025 – 9k out and 9k back along the shore road – happened yesterday, brought forward from Friday to avoid the five days of snowy hell we’ve been promised in the New Year. Possibly more – the Met Office forecast doesn’t go beyond Monday. With wind gusting 30-40mph on Thursday and Friday, and ‘feels like’ temperatures of -7ºC, it might be time to rejig the running plan and take a week off. We’ll see what the Weather Gods bring.

Add your comment

Your Name


Your Email (only if you are happy to have it on the site)


Your Comment - no HTML or weblinks


Enter this number in the box below and click Send - why?Unfortunately we have to do this to prevent the system being swamped by automated spam