At the end of every season, I have an in-depth chat with my coach about how we feel it's gone. What's worked, what hasn't worked, what can we change or implement to get better. But 2020 has been no ordinary year! It's quite hard to summarise how I feel about this mini-track season because it was entirely different to what we had initially planned and had been training towards.
I started out 2020 with my main goal to be competitive over the 10,000m. When coronavirus hit, the Olympics was rightly postponed followed by the cancellation of a host of events in its wake. Then there were rumours through the running community that the Great North Run (which is a prestigious half marathon in the UK) would be going ahead as an elite-only race, so we set our sights on competing in my first ever half marathon. I put a lot of work in and was excited to see how I would fare over 13.1miles but unfortunately, like everything else this year, our plan was derailed with the cancellation of almost all road races in the UK.
Frustratingly my racing options were now limited. I could either sit on the sofa at home or throw myself into some shorter races on the track. Mentally, this season has been more demanding than any other. Having set my focus on the longer events to then only face shorter ones, was tough.
I wanted to be competitive and run fast but the 1500m races were so far removed from the training I had been doing. Nonetheless, I gave it a shot and tried my best. Unfortunately, I was a long way off my personal best times! In fact, it's the first season since 2015 where I haven't set a personal best.
Even though I felt frustrated with my performances, I am very grateful that an athletics season went ahead. For a long time that looked highly unlikely! It may have been condensed and restricted but it was certainly better than nothing at all.
Race directors and meetings’ organisers across the world were being creative and ensuring a safe environment for all competitors, which was great to see. We had regular covid-19 testing, single occupancy rooms, restricted mealtimes and we all stayed within the bubble of the designated hotel for the meet to ensure our safety.
If 2020 has given me anything, it's the confidence knowing that I've been able to do some cracking workouts over the longer distances and my body has responded well. More miles have been clocked without a single injury throughout this season which is something I've always struggled with previously. It's really given me the fire in my belly to make the move up in events for next year's Olympic Games. I'm ready for a new challenge so the 10,000m is the next step before I say a final farewell to the track and focus on road racing.
For now, I won't overthink the 2020 season too much. It's an anomaly that everyone has faced. Some have come out with their most impressive seasons yet, whilst others have struggled to find their form. However, there are far bigger concerns to be dealing with than sport right now, as our world continues to battle towards normality.
