Last year, and for each year right back to 2016, around the final day of the year or beginning of the next, I have written a yearly blog post review and selected a lot of photos. I would always underestimate how long it would take and end up, rather bizarrely, getting stressed. This year, I decided to do a month by month photo review. This means the photos are already selected and has allowed me to spend time reflecting on what I got up to that past month. The stress beforehand because of the mammoth task to sort through the photos meant I did not actually appreciate the memories. Looking back now though at years gone by, makes me grateful for past me spending the time to record it this way. As described below the worry about me forgetting a moment leads to me taking lots of photos. But what if, under an avalanche of photos, these memories could be overlooked and therefore also forgotten about?! Ahh! This blog therefore at least lessens this risk!
My 2024
What a busy year! Here goes a messy write up. I started the year with angiogram to see how my brain was doing, attended some cycling related meetings, went running a lot, campaigned with Labour for the by-election in Wellingborough, my former home. I ran, I cycled, I ate out, I went to Manchester to visit Tiff and campaigned some more. I went back to Wellingborough for my Dad’s 70th. I ran some more and then did my first 10k. I went down to London for a visit. Campaigned for Jacob Collier. Ate out quite a few times during the year! I visited Matlock. I got into the gym a bit more. I cycled more. I went down to London for Critical Mass. A little later I went down to London to visit. I campaigned in the lead up to the General Election. Kidical Mass started back up for 2024! Labour won the General Election! I ran some more. Parkrun and Frontrunners became a solid part of my week. I had an amazing cycling holiday in the Netherlands with Seb. This involved getting the train to Dover, and then ferry across to Dunkirk and cycling 300 miles from here through Belgium then to Vlissingen, Rotterdam, Delft, Haarlem, Amsterdam and Utrecht! I had a colonscopy, a ran some more, train to Manchester for Tiff’s Birthday, London, my Birthday, gym, theatre, ran the Robin Hood Half Marathon, got into using OLIO, another Kidical Mass, a school bike bus, Goose Fair, attended my second cousin’s wedding, Halloween Kidical Mass, London again, and some more cycling and cycling advocacy. I definitely have missed bits off. Phew.
My Cycling
As per tradition, I record my cycling habits. This year I cycled a total of 1,324 miles. My Garmin fell off by bicycle and the replacement took a few days to come but generally this figure is accurate. I am a lover of seeing my statistics for the year. I burnt 79,868 calories, averaging at 10.1 mph, and spent a total of 5.4 days on the saddle.
I am pleased this has increased. Last year I was a little surprised how few I had cycled compared with years gone by. After this shock at the end of 2023, I concluded that my travel habits had changed so that it may now no longer be the personal tally getting higher but hopefully through my campaigning and through work, I am enabling and encouraging others to do so. As well as this year doing just these latter objectives, my personal statistics did increase. Behaviour of course is flexible. Plus, I went on a cycle holiday to the Netherlands adding 300 miles to the tally.
My running
Towards the end of 2023, I really got into running and with 2024 this continued and flourished.
I try to do every Parkrun which takes place on a Saturday and every Frontrunners on a Tuesday. I find it is a nice split of 10km – 2 lots of 5k during the week. Without it, I imagine I could easily fall out of this habit of keeping active.
Back in March saw me do the Nottingham 10k in 52 minutes and 20 seconds. And then in September, I did the Robin Hood Half Marathon in 1 hour, 59 minutes and 14 seconds.
The total run tall of 2024 was 368.6 km equating to 33 hours and 44 minutes.
Photos
I take a lot of photos. To me, I use them to look back on and reminisce. I do not have a memory that I can recall in great detail a certain event. I imagine without photos, the memories would completely fade. I find them a useful tool. I go by the idiom ‘if a photo is not taken, did it really happen?’ which of course staddles the fine line between taking photos to remember important moments and living through a lens. What memories are important to capture? What’s too much? Below are some photos selected from the year. Of course, I have omitted some for numerous reasons.
2025
I am not one for making predictions because anything could happen. However, I shall share my loose New Year’s Resolutions which are the usual – be happy, make others happy, make more money, make the world a better place. I have a massive holiday booked for this year which I am really excited about. There’s a whole world out there that needs to be explored. Also, I shall further develop at work. I shall get more people into cycling!
Thanks for reading,
Samuel x
