Racing ahead, from the depths of winter

It's a new year, so let's look ahead, why don't we

Photograph: Jiva Finn

I saw a quote the other day that said, (and I’m paraphrasing since I can’t find it now): “I save my resolutions for spring, when renewal and rebirth is in the air, for now, in the depths of winter, I need to rest, hunker down and be still.”

I get that sentiment, but still, there is something about the turning of the calendar, the new number on the year, the end of the holidays, that despite the dark and the cold gives you the impetuous to renew and to go again. Besides, I fear that if I wait until spring, I’ll simply forget.

So now seems a reasonably good time to set out some goals, and to look ahead to the coming 12 months.

Personally I’m still chewing like a dog on that “Breaking 18” goal from last year - that is to run 5km in under 18 minutes. Having run 18:00 so casually in my first parkrun of last year, I’m still hopeful I can nudge myself at least one second quicker. But of course, every year after 50, things get harder, so I’m battling not only the clock, and myself, but time and age itself.

The only 2026 race I’ve actually signed up for so far is a half marathon in March. Wondering about my time goal for that, I felt 1hr 25mins seemed roughly equivalent to an 18-minute 5K. Both felt fast, tough, but just about possible. But then I decided to Google it, and I found that 17:59 for 5K is an 82% age grading. The equivalent age-graded time for the half marathon, it turns out, is not 1hr 25, but 1hr 20. Ouch. Can I still run under 1hr 20? I haven’t run that fast since 2015 when I was a sprightly 41-year-old just back from six months hard training in Japan.

The chart below shows the other 82% age-graded times (for age 51) and so I guess these could be my goals if I manage to run any of these distances. They all seem crazy fast. But then, a goal should be lofty, right? And as I learned in 2025, not achieving the goal is no big shakes, as long as it’s fun to go for it. So I’ll run as hard as I can, but focus on enjoying the process - with the feeling of being as fit and fast as I can (and staying injury free) the real goal. The times are just the sprinkles on the top of the cake.

So that’s me. What about you? Do you have any big goals for 2026? I’d love to hear about them if you do.

As for the running fan in me, here’s a few things I’m looking forward to watching unfold this year.

The men’s marathon took a real backward step after the shocking death of Kelvin Kiptum in 2024, with times getting slower across the board. It seemed that the buzz and excitement Kiptum had created with his blazing runs had all gone out of the event. But the leading men have regrouped, and, particularly with Sabastian Sawe and Jacob Kiplimo, we have the possibility of some seriously fast times again - and perhaps someone getting close to the mythical sub-2 hours. I’d love to see Sawe and Kiplimo go head to head in London in April.

On the track, my athlete of the year for the last two years, Beatrice Chebet, has announced that she is taking 2026 off running to have a baby, so we’ll have to wait at least another year to see her back in action.

Femke Bol stepping up from the 400m hurdles to the 800m is an intriguing prospect in a super competitive event. Unfortunately there is no major global championships this year, so we may not get to see all the best runners lining up against each other in peak form on the same day, but it will be fascinating to see what sort of times they can run.

Without a world championships or an Olympics, will we all be tuning in to the Enhanced Games in May, perhaps? The drug-fuelled alternative to the Olympics (which I wrote about in the Guardian) has been talking big for years, but I can’t help feeling it will all be a huge wet blanket. Maybe that’s wishful thinking, as I hate the whole concept, but even I could have begun to get intrigued if it had a less “billionaire bro/Maga” vibe to it all, and if it had more than a handful of athletes competing. It feels like they’ve announced all the big names and are now lining up athletes who would usually never get near world-class level events. The idea that they’re going to be running super-human times, and that the event will be “one of the most compelling television events of all time” is looking less and less likely - at least on the track.

What about 2026 on the trails and in the ultra running world? It’s time, I feel, that we had a new breakout star. Much as I love Kilian, Jim, Courtney etc, where are the irrepressible young mavericks coming in and smashing up course records, and re-writing the sport? Am I just missing them? It might have been the Kenyans - until Joylene Chepngeno’s bad turn - but alas that story is over, and so the stage is clear. Who do you think might step up to take it?

I’m intrigued by Molly Seidel, who won bronze in the marathon at the Tokyo Olympics, and who says she’s stepping up to trail ultras. She hasn’t done much yet, but watch this space.

My final question - and he won’t tell me the answer, even though we’re friends - is whether Damian Hall will get an entry for the Barkley Marathons this year, and if he does, whether he can finally complete that fifth loop without getting lost? I guess only time will tell …