That was 2012...

Apart from the Everest Marathon...

August - Camino de Santiago de Compostela
One day I intend to walk the Camino in northern Spain. I had a week’s bike trip at the end of August to see what the terrain was like. It is quite hilly and our route went up to 1500m, rather higher than Ben Nevis.

Our journey was more luxurious than most pilgrimages: our bags were carried in the van and we stayed at nice hotels rather than the basic hostels. We did about 265 Km by bike so qualified for our Credencials:

Business trips
I also had 2 short trips for business conferences – Oslo in January and Dresden in September. Dresden is a pleasant city which was badly damaged by Allied incendiary bombs. During our conference, we had a presentation about the reconstruction of the famous Frauenkirche, which was left as an anti-war memorial for 50 years but now serves as a symbol of reconciliation.

General news
Other possible trips have been somewhat limited somewhat by commitments and circumstances. Viki has been visiting her elderly mother quite frequently. Mishka the Airedale has also suffered from problems associated with advanced years.

There were a few trips nearer to home in June: I met up with (separately) Neville, Jamie, and Andrew & family during the May Bumps in Cambridge; Jamie & I went on a track day to drive an Audi R8 and an Aston Martin; I saw David at the Jesus College Garden party, which was an opportunity to use my new bus pass! I also saw Geoffrey at the end of his Cambridge based summer history course in July.

Viki was an avid follower of everything related to the Olympics and Paralympics, mostly on TV but we made a visit with Jamie to the ladies’ pentathlon combined (final) event at Greenwich. I also managed to get to a couple of Prom concerts in August.

Village affairs continue to keep us busy. Viki helps to run the Forget-me-not Club for older people and also cooks and serves in the café in the village hall. I am chairman of the parish council and recreation ground committee. Notable achievements this year by these organisations include a sustainable energy show and the installation of an outside gym with fitness equipment. Following on from the show, I borrowed a thermal imaging camera to help track down cold spots in various houses around the village. (Our own solar PV panels have just completed a year of service with the generation of just over 3000 KWh of electricity, which gives a pretty good return on the investment and makes us feel a little bit green!)

Another village institution here is the Partridge discussion group for men during January and February. We discuss a wide variety of topics, focussing on the ethical and religious aspects. I was very pleased to persuade Professor Bob White FRS, Director of the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion, to speak to the group this year.

Family
Our son Jamie is still working in London for G-Research, living near Finsbury Park and making occasional visits to Cambridge. Daughter Anneka is working for square one financial planning and gradually sorting out her new house in Portslade near Brighton. She has just acquired a new puppy, Delta, a ‘sister’ for Dolly, her miniature dachshund.

My brother Paul has been to the UK twice this year – we saw him and his older sons briefly at the end of April. Sister Mary came over for the day, which was nice.

His second trip recently was supposed to be a very brief one to pick up a visa for Angola but it took much longer than expected. He’s now there for a couple of weeks and intends to be home for Christmas. He's likely to go back in January but the longer term is not yet certain as he still doesn’t have a long-term visa. He’s investigating alternatives, which may prove more attractive!

We also met up with Viki’s brother Peregrine and family in August.

Everest Marathon 2012

My big news for 2012 was the successful completion of the Tenzing-Hillary Everest Marathon ("probably the most adventurous trail run in the world"), with Jeremy Barber and another 86 international and 75 Nepalese runners. We left the UK for Kathmandu on 14th May where we met up with most of the other international participants for a couple of days of introductions and sightseeing. We then flew to Tenzing-Hillary Airport Lukla (“the most dangerous airport in the world”) and thence spent about 10 days trekking up from Lukla to Everest Base Camp at 5364m altitude. On 29th May, the anniversary of the first ascent of Everest by Tenzing and Hillary in 1953, we ran most of the way back down, to Namche Bazaar at 3446m.

Times varied from just over 3:40 for the fastest Nepali to a bit over 16 hours for the slowest foreigner so our 12:26:20 was perhaps not too bad. Our tea break at about half way accounted for most of the 26 minutes! I probably slowed us down as I was a much less experienced marathon runner – this was my first (and so far only) full marathon – and had very little to eat in the preceding 24 hours due to a stomach problem (I was not alone in this affliction). By contrast, Dave who accompanied Jeremy and me from the tea-break onwards, was the most experienced with 280 marathons under his belt. After the race, we had another couple of days of trekking and a couple more days in Kathmandu. This was a really fantastic experience and I can really recommend it to anyone who’s fit enough for mountain walking – do the trek even if you can’t face the run!

We were back home in time for the tail end of the Queen’s Jubilee weekend – and in my case a hog roast on the Monday afternoon.

The year had started with the realisation that I needed to be fit and ideally do one or two marathons before the Everest Marathon. In spite of some bad weather, I was running 3 times most weeks. Jeremy came to run the Cambridge Boundary Run on 4th March with me with the hope of doing a full marathon; the weather was so cold and wet that we stopped at the half marathon point! The next weekend was the new Cambridge Half Marathon which was a much bigger event – they even managed to sort out the weather. I continued regular running but suffered more very wet events: I missed one fun run and once again opted for the half marathon option in the Three Forts cross-country run on 6th May. Since returning from Nepal, I have continued my fitness runs and competed in a few more races, including 3 half marathons (Heroes Half Bassingbourn and Milton Keynes in June/July and Great Eastern in Peterborough in October) and a couple of 10Ks. I was also in one of the AVEVA teams in the Chariots of Fire charity relay race in Cambridge.

Before the Nepal trip, I was also doing quite a lot of walks including some long ones – the Stonehenge Stomp (about 20 miles) with Jeremy on 29th January, a week in the Peak District in February, and some local walks including the Daffodil Dawdle on 18th March, in which I did a marathon distance in just over 6 hours including stops. I’ve not done many long walks since my return but have just joined the Long Distance Walkers Association to encourage me to do more!

Knockbrex Castle - July 2011

The Brunning clan gathered at Knockbrex Castle for the week of 16-23 July 2011. At most, there were 19 people (one missing below):