2025 Retrospective |
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25 December 2025 - Adetswil
Looking back on 2025 it's been a case of many movements in a symphony repeating themselves. My everpresent weekly goal to run an average of 25K a week was again not met. My goal to get my weight down was again not met - I'm pretty much where I was this time last year. On the upside I managed to read over 55 books and counting this year. I also made regular yoga a part of my weekly routine, although not always the 3 times a week I was aiming for.
Adventurewise it was quite a year. January began in Alpharetta, although I was sick I still managed to run a 5K with Ken and Brenton. In February I spent a week in Konstanz and Iwona's cat Moro died. In March I spent a week in Portugal, running a race and singing in an Irish pub in Cascais for St. Paddy's day. Paula and I ran the length of the Glatt River from the airport to the Greifensee. And then I finished up the month in the hytte on Askøy battling mice and cleaning it out. In April I had three straight weekends of races in Slovakia, Hungary, and Austria, with all the train travel and museums I could fit in between. May started off camping with the dogs and taking our longest hike of the year along the Alpine Panorama Trail from Zug to Lucerne. Midmonth I moved into a new apartment on the lake in Erlenbach, ending eight months of a perpatetic life. I also ran my first relay race, doing a 13 km segment of the 113 km SOLA Stafette with other members of Zürich CityRunning. Iwona and I ended the month visiting Assisi and and started June in Rimini, where the dogs and I ran inland to visit San Marino and we learned that Eddie really can't run that much in the heat. Midmonth saw me travel to Norway to close out the hytte, giving many things to Maxwell who I saw for the first time in two years. Arriving back home in Switzerland I learned that Augmedi no longer had money to pay me, so I was once again on the jobhunt. Such is the startup life. So began a couple months of hiking and soul-searching. I started doing segments of the Zürichsee Rundweg. Then in July I took the train to the French border past Geneva and started walking the Camino on this side of France. I made it about 220 km to Roussillon before returning home. Then it was off to Poland where Iwona and I swam our first open water race in the Baltic around the Sopot pier. After that we walked with the dogs along the Camino from the Russian border to Gdańsk for about 170 km. We stayed with Iwona's cousin Mariola there for a few days and then she and another cousin came to stay with us in Adetswil for a few days on their way to Italy. August saw me run all five days of the Berglauf Cup. Then I ended the month with my big race of the year up Kazbegi in the Caucasus Mountains of Georgia with the Mikeller Run Club. In September I travelled by train across Georgia for my first swim in the Black Sea on the black sand beach of Ureki. Back in Switzerland we visited the countries largest island, Ufenau, and largest underground lake, the imaginatively named Lac Souterrain. I also ran back to back weekend races around the Greifensee and Pfäffikersee. October I ran a race in Einsiedeln and read alot, visiting Zürich's book festival for the first time and adding far too much to my tsundoku piles. Then, of course, there was the October Game. November saw me travel to Rome to run a race from the Vatican all around Rome. I also received a papal indulgence passing through the doors of St. Peter's. Then I spent a week in Montenegro, half with Iwona, where I ran a race in Podgorica (6th new country raced in this year and 25th in Europe) and randomly saw my cousin Julie. Then back in Zürich I ended the month competing in the Beer Run as part of the Hash House Harriers' team. So December I have tried to keep things boring for change and not travel anywhere. I have done a lot of baking though.
On the language front I continued speaking German in DACH, Norwegian on trips to Norway, and French on trips west and in France in the Summer. I decided to test myself in the last of these and took the DELF A2 in November, which I passed with high scores so I probably should have taken the B1. C'est la vie. I also continued my study of Japanese and their kanji as well as learning the Georgian alphabet for my trip there. And a bit of Duolingo Czech, Hungarian, Italian, Portuguese, and Polish when I was traveling, the last of these also when I'm trying to understand Iwona.
Activity suggests a life filled with purpose . . .
