The death of my Dad in 2016 had a profound effect on me and was the catalyst for change. I had two young children at the time, and knew I needed to do something so we could all have a happier future. I weighed 27 stone and knew I needed to lose weight. In early 2017 I joined Slimming World and saw instant results so stuck with the plan. I wanted to do something to enhance the weight loss and in August 2017 I toed the line at my first parkrun. It was a struggle, but there was an enormous feeling of achievement at the end of each week, and I started to run midweek too. My first major race was in May 2018, it was the Sunderland 10k. My wife and children joined my Mam to cheer me over the finish line. The atmosphere, the goodie bag, the medal and the feeling of success had me hooked. Five months later I completed the first of my three marathons. I was about to travel to Barcelona for my fourth when we were hit with the pandemic. Lockdown was a struggle for me – I found it difficult to motivate myself to run and subsequently gained weight. However, the future is looking bright and I’m grateful to Events of the North for the opportunity to rekindle that running feeling. My training has begun, I’ll be toeing the line on 20th June and I hope you can join me.
