On 9 April, vegan athlete Fiona Oakes, 43, won the women's race in the North Pole Marathon in -28°C, breaking a course record by 44 minutes despite the worst conditions in the race's history.
I hadn't been back to St Anne's for two decades and had avoided mailing lists. So I'd never realised some of the authors, journalists and broadcasters I most admired had slept in the same shoebox rooms and drunk in the same windowless college bar years before me.
Recently a nugget of wisdom mentioned in Back to the Future has come to mind. I love the film, but this statement encapsulates a belief in achievement that is particularly pervasive in American society but is popular throughout the Western world.
New Year is the season for new commitments and new failures to see our commitments through.
We begin well and mid-way through January we seek out those who abandoned their resolve early and use them as an excuse to do the same. It's too easy not to do what you say you really want to do.
It's said that Alfred Nobel established the Nobel Prize because his obituary was published in error before his death and he didn't like what was said ...