My LAST Cambridge summer | Season 7 Finale

In this post, I look back at the last months of my 7th year in Cambridge. I make a huge announcement at the end!

The recording of my recent talk as part of the MIDAS network webinar series is here.

This post covers from mid-June (since my earlier update) until the start of September. It comes a bit late because life and the PhD are keeping me busy (with good stuff!).

After bumps, the rest of June was quiet. For the first time since October, I stayed in the UK for the whole month. But Cambridge is great during the British “summer”. I enjoyed many late evening runs with plenty of daylight.

I moved around much more in July. First, I went to Paris…via Manchester. In Paris, I watched my second Diamond League (athletics meeting), where I saw two world records. All the flights from London were either ridiculously early or expensive. Instead, I went the day earlier to Manchester, slept at a cheap hotel, and flew out from there. It was an easy call, because I had never seen the city before. (I did fly out of Manchester airport last year on my way to the Brussels DL!) Back in Paris, this was only a couple of weeks before the Olympics. It was interesting (albeit sometimes annoying) to see all the preparations around the city. The city itself was also great (I had been there before, but as a young child). For the return trip, I much enjoyed treating myself to my first Eurostar journey. Back in London, it definitely wasn’t the first time I took the train from King’s Cross to Cambridge. Two weeks later, I was back in London to watch the Diamond League at the Olympic Park in Stratford. No world records, but an amazing meet with 60,000 spectators.

Still, most days in July I was “locked in”. Focusing on my PhD thesis means saying no to a lot of things. Nevertheless, I enjoyed sharing my research journey and advice with undergraduate research interns, as part of a discussion panel at the maths faculty. It is always nice to appreciate how far I have come since I was in their shoes! On that note, this blog turned 7 years old in July. Crazy!

At the end of July, I left Cambridge for a ten-day holiday with my family in the southeast of Spain. To get there, I actually flew to Faro airport, in the south of Portugal. Faro is likely my favourite airport in the world. The views arriving and departing are amazing!

The rest of August was back to the grind. It’s only worth highlighting a bizarre visit to Rochester, a historic village south of London. It seemed very nice, though I had less than one hour to spare there. I was on my way Maidstone, a town further south. And I spent even less time there! All I had there was a brief appointment to have my biometrics (fingerprints, etc.) taken…What for? My application for British citizenship, which I submitted at the end of August. I am still waiting for the result!

On the 1st of September, I ran a half marathon in London (the Big Half). The past 2.5 months were my most consistent running training block to date. Since I am no longer rowing, I was able to increase my running volume significantly. Although race day was hot (over 20C), I managed to hold for a PB (a few minutes below 2 hours). On a cold day, I would have run faster. But I really enjoyed the training block, without injuries or sickness (!). Although I miss the team aspect of rowing, I am excited to keep logging miles. Luckily, the day after the race I felt reasonably good. It might have helped that, unlike last time, the half marathon was not after five back-to-back days of rowing bumps.

Big news!

After nearly seven years in Cambridge, I sold some items and packed up the rest of my belongings…The day after my race, I headed to the train station with a few suitcases and no plans to return….I am still a student at Cambridge University, but I am no longer living in Cambridge. I am going to miss some things about Cambridge (mainly the people and the running routes). However, it is not hard to tell I need a change: none of the photos in this post are from Cambridge. I am happily writing this post from an undisclosed location.

I honestly don’t know if and when I will share publicly more details. I also don’t know if and when I will continue to blog. Writing here is fun and great practice, but I already spent most of my time writing. To be notified about any potential future posts, you can subscribe with your email down below (if you haven’t already).

Thanks for reading!

Maria