I previously ran a lot in my younger days, when I was in my mid-twenties around 1987 I ran in a number of Half Marathons, including Swindon, Bracknell and Reading. However due to work I drifted away from running and only really found the love for it again it again in 2013.
Rapidly approaching my 50th Birthday, I realised how unfit and out of shape I had become from my non active lifestyle. In May 2013 I turned up at my local parkrun and huffed and puffed my way around the 5km’s in 38 minutes. My Asthma meant I had to stop and take some puffs of my Inhaler on a number of occasions. That convinced me that my 16.5 stone body needed to get back into some sort of state.
Now almost 3 stone lighter my parkrun PB is 23 minutes, I have ran 8 Marathons, countless Half marathons and often get asked to be an official race pacer at events all around the UK and overseas. I have paced for the Runners World Pace Team in the London marathon and in 2019 was on the UK pace team for the Paris Marathon
Running has not only helped me to lose weight, but it has improved my health, both physically and mentally, My Asthma is now under control, and I am a fundraiser and social media contributor for the charity Asthma UK. I am also on their grant review panel to assess funding requests from researchers and scientists.
I now try to encourage others with the same condition as myself to get active, and improve their health, one of the most enjoyable aspects of my running these days is when I am acting as a Pacer to help runners achieve their goals and ambitions and hit new PB targets, which is always a big boost for me.
I am the Event Director for the recently launched Seven Fields parkrun in Swindon, and Run Director of the Lydiard (Swindon) Junior parkrun.