Running is so much more than just putting one foot in front of the other for me, like I’m sure it is for a lot of you. Some of my earliest memories are of running as a child, whether it be playing tag with friends in the playground or running a hard 1500m for my school athletics team, I’ve always wanted to run!
Well, maybe not always, because there was a big period in my life where the joy of running was taken away from me when I got struck down with pretty severe asthma! I remember it like it was yesterday, running a 800m event for the school team, I was having a great race but with around 300m to go all of a sudden I couldn’t catch my breath. I was forced to drop from the race and I really couldn’t understand what had just happened – welcome to the world of asthma, Loyd!
From the age of 12 to when I moved to Cornwall at the age of 31 I suffered with exercise induced asthma and became pretty dependent on my inhaler.
But as if my magic when moving to the fresh air of Cornish coast, it just stopped! My lungs started to free up and I didn’t need my inhaler any more – it was such a pivotal moment in my life, it was like I was 12 years old all over again and I haven’t stopped running since!