After a brief period of running in my early twenties, taking part in the 2nd London Marathon in 1982, I took up running again in 2006 when I was in my late 40’s. I entered the Selby Half Marathon that year and broke 2 hours in 1 hour 54 minutes.
I continued to run and train on my own entering a few races until I was persuaded to join a local running club. About this time parkrun came to Pontefract so I started frequenting this event on Saturday morning or another parkrun venue where I was visiting.
In 2014 I ran the London Marathon again and finished in 4 hours 14 minutes. I ran a few more marathons and half marathons over the next few years, but with no real structure to my training.
Then came lockdown.It was during lockdown that The Vale of York Athletic Community was conceived. It started with some on line seminars and once we were allowed to meet up again, ran small group runs with qualified run leaders. I joined at the beginning as they offered a structured and proven philosophy to training, adaptable to anyone’s capabilities.
Over the last couple of years my fitness and running has improved tremendously following a more structured, but flexible, training plan so much so that I have achieved personal best times in 5K, 10k 10 miles, half marathon, 20 mile and marathon distances this year.
I wanted to give back to the club that had given me the opportunity to improve my running so I have now qualified as an England Athletics Leader in Running Fitness and am now part of the core team that run the Vale of York Community Runs.
I also take part in road and cross country races representing the club and next year plan to tackle some track and field events.My favourite time for running is early morning. I rarely run with music choosing to listen to the sounds of the countryside and find it a great time to clear my mind and think things through.
Most Saturdays you can find me at a parkrun. I have competed 400 runs at 140 different locations. If you see me at your local parkrun do come and say hello.