Climbing Kilimanjaro

My greatest and proudest achievement of the year has to be reaching the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro. It is the hardest challenge I have ever undertaken, and by far the most rewarding. Standing nearly 6000m tall with the most incredible group of people, hugging, crying, laughing and singing will stay with me forever. I am so grateful to G Adventures, our G Fighters and Jacs, JP, Mike, Princess Ant, Nim, Max and the best tent buddy Katie, for making the trip so enjoyable and creating memories that will last a lifetime.

Winning Vuelio Best Fitness Blog Award

I was over the moon to be awarded best fitness blog at the Vuelio Blog awards a few weeks ago, it was so totally unexpected. I was up against very tough and amazing competition. This year was a real turning point for The Runner Beans, it was the first time I made money from the blog, went on some awesome press trips, formed partnerships with brands I love, and turned this blog into a business.

Running the New York City Marathon

As part of my partnership with New Balance this year I was so grateful to be able to run the New York City Marathon with one of my bridesmaids Zoe. It was an amazing opportunity to run my favourite marathon alongside one of my best friends and reflect on how far we’d both come as runners since we first ran the race in 2013. The city was bathed in sunshine, the roads lined with supporters, and I smiled most of the way from start to finish. Check out my marathon video and blog post here.

Finishing my Year 1 of Dietetics degree

Embarking on a four year dietetics degree has been tough, but I know it’s the right decision. I finished the first year with good grades, a hatred for biochemistry and a increased enthusiasm for clinical dietetics. We have a lot of work this year, and placements coming up in January, but it all feels worth it. I’ve got my first placement in three weeks which I’m super excited for!

Growing my Instagram

In October 2015 I had 5,000 followers on Instagram, and I’m overwhelmed to be finishing 2016 with over 22,000 of you lovely lot (if you don’t already follow me – what are you waiting for?). A lot of this I think is due to my lovely photographer Will Patrick (go and check him out – he also does weddings!!) The quality of my photos thanks to Will has dramatically increased, but working with him has also taught me a lot about how to take better images on my iPhone and camera. I’m keeping my feed a mix of professional and personal pics, running selfies and self-timer shots to keep it real.

Travelling

I’ve somehow managed to go abroad seven times in the past 6 months, with trips to the USA, Tanzania, Majorca, Portugal and New Zealand. I feel so lucky to have friends to travel with, international buddies to visit, not to mention friends I’ve made along the way. Now that Tokyo is off the cards, other than a honeymoon hopefully to California and Tahiti in September, I don’t really have any real travel plans for 2017…although Sophie and I are off to Austria on a fun blogging ski trip in Jan!