Personal
Running Journey
From over 24 stone and an inactive lifestyle to half marathons, marathons, a 50km ultra — and the communities that made it possible.
Before running
By 2017, I weighed over 24 stone and lived a largely inactive lifestyle due to a combination of severe allergies, chronic sinus problems, eczema, and ongoing physical discomfort. Exercise and activity had gradually become things I avoided rather than embraced. Like many people, I had fallen into routines that were easy to maintain but difficult to escape from.
At the time, I never imagined that within a few years I would complete marathons, trail races, and eventually a 50km ultra marathon.
The conversation that changed everything
In September of 2017, I'd asked my son what he wanted to do for the October half term. I had booked the week off work to be with him. His answer: “I'm happy to stay indoors, cuddle up and watch TV”.
There is of course nothing wrong with that; I love to do that with him. However, it is not what you want your 10-year-old to want to do for an entire week of holiday.
I had never wanted to be a parent that said to their kids “do as I say, not as I do”. I could not very well insist he should be outside or wanting to visit someone or somewhere, when I knew his answer came from a place of love — he knew doing that is something I would be happy to do and would not cause me any more pain and discomfort than I was already in.
Where I worked at the time, iSiteTV, was offering to cover the entrance fee for any staff that signed up to the Colchester Half Marathon. That conversation with my son stayed with me, and despite not having run since my school and Army Cadet days around 20 years earlier, I signed up for the half marathon with only a few months to get from couch to half marathon!
Walking before running
After a friend at work told me about parkrun, I attended my local parkrun on the last Saturday of September of 2017. It may have taken 51 minutes to walk the 5 km, but I still completed it.
My first real step towards becoming more active came through fundraising for Cancer Research UK. I committed to walking 10,000 steps a day throughout November 2017, something that initially felt far more intimidating than it probably sounds now.
At the beginning, even reaching those step counts regularly was a challenge. However, the process slowly started building consistency, confidence, and routine. More importantly, it proved that improvement was possible through persistence rather than perfection.
Discovering parkrun
At the time, even the idea of completing 5km felt daunting. My first few events involved just walking — and the fact that parkrun was never about speed or competition, instead about community and participation, made all the difference.
The encouragement from volunteers, runners, and the wider local running community became one of the biggest driving forces behind my progress. That support eventually led me towards joining Sudbury Joggers, where I found another incredibly welcoming and supportive community that played a huge role in helping me continue improving. Looking back, community became one of the defining themes of the entire journey — and I too volunteered to support others.
The first year of running
2018 became the year that changed everything. What began with walking challenges and struggling through parkruns quickly evolved into something far bigger than I could ever have imagined.
Over the course of that first year, I went from barely managing 5km to completing regular parkruns, 10km races, half marathons, longer training events, organised race weekends, and endurance-focused training plans. Each new milestone initially seemed impossible, but signing up for the next race always gave me a target to work towards.
One of the most important moments of that journey came through fundraising for the Loch Ness Marathon. After the death of my Nana, I became heavily involved in fundraising for Cancer Research UK, and raised over £1.2k. I chose the Loch Ness Marathon as my first marathon because it would be returning home — I was born in the Highlands of Scotland, and I stayed with my Grandad before and after the race.
Travelling to Scotland, standing on the start line, and completing a full marathon became symbolic of just how dramatically life had changed in a relatively short period of time. The date of the Loch Ness Marathon also marked a year since I decided I was going to sign up for the Colchester Half Marathon — one year from couch to marathon.
By the end of 2018:
34 races · 3 marathons · 8 half marathons · almost 1,000 miles.
Injuries to ultra marathon
The summer of 2018 was one of the hottest on record for the UK as a whole, especially for Suffolk. When the weather finally changed, it did so with a nasty autumn thunderstorm and cold high winds — during my third marathon. The third of four marathons I was aiming to run within three weeks of the Loch Ness Marathon.
After the prolonged heat wave, the sudden thunderstorm and flash flooding, I lost my footing in a ford which caused me to hurt an ankle and put my back out. Despite this, I was able to finish the third marathon, but I had to pull out of the fourth one the next day when sharp shooting pains started occurring down my leg.
This injury took months to be diagnosed correctly and saw me pull out of multiple races. But this did not deter me, and 2019 saw me complete 19 races — one of which was a 50 kilometre (31 mile) trail marathon in gale force winds after no training for weeks prior due to another injury.
To me, the biggest achievement was never the medals or finish times, but the gradual process of proving to myself that long-term consistency and persistence could completely transform what once felt impossible.
Community and support
One of the most important parts of the journey was the people. parkrun, Sudbury Joggers, volunteers, race organisers, fellow runners, friends, and family all played important roles in helping me continue moving forwards during difficult moments.
Running introduced me to communities built around encouragement, positivity, and shared experiences rather than competition alone. That support system helped me through races, injuries, setbacks, and training struggles — and I always try to pay the same level of support over into other parts of life, including work, creativity, and personal projects.
Retirement from running
Unfortunately, injuries and ongoing physical issues eventually caught up with me. By March 2020, a final injury a few days before the first COVID lockdown had never healed properly, especially as it was impossible to seek proper medical attention at that time.
I attempted to continue to run, but a training session for the next ultra marathon — still hoping to happen despite COVID-19 — saw my ankle give out several miles into a practice trail run. With buses and taxis not running, and lockdown rules preventing travel with others, I needed to make it back on an injured and swollen ankle in hot weather. With all my weight on my other ankle, that then led to my other ankle getting hurt.
As a result, I went from running a 50 km race in gale force winds with no training to struggling to make it up the stairs of my house. Mixed with my other health issues, these injuries meant that running at any level was no longer sustainable, and I finally made the difficult decision to retire from running.
Stepping away was not easy. Running had become a major part of my identity, routine, and social life. However, despite no longer running, the impact of that journey has remained incredibly important to me.
What running changed
Many of the lessons I learned through running eventually carried over into other parts of my life, including software engineering, creative projects, community work, and long-term personal goals.
Running taught me that meaningful progress rarely happens quickly, but consistency and persistence over time can completely reshape what feels possible.