Where it all started!

My running journey started much like everyone elses, at the beginning. Sorry, it won't get any better. This might be longer than most posts, it might be shorter. I am just going to ramble a bit and see how it goes.

I have always enjoyed running to some extent. At primary school there was the mini marathon, which was 2 laps around the school field and if my brain recalls correctly I am almost certain I came atleast second on a couple of occasions. In high school I always opted to do the 1500m instead of rounders and can definitely remember winning that one. As I left school I kind of fell out of running and into pubs, or out of them. It wasn't until lockdown (shocker) where I decided to start to run more regularly again. With nothing else to do except sit and drink, eat and watch TV I thought it was a good time to whip out the old running shoes and try it out.

Very soon into this new fitness fling I gave up, thought it pointless and just decided to vegetate instead. That continued for a long while until Winter 2023.

A very good friend of mine was going through a really rough patch, his dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer and I wanted to help but just didn't know how. I then saw an ad on Facebook for Prostate Cancer UK fundraising. There was a particular event that was "Run a marathon in January 2024", which essentially meant run the equivalent of 26.2 miles over the course of January and raise as much money as you could. I thought what a great way to raise money for a fantastic cause but also gave me the kick up the arse I needed to actually start being more active.

I took the plunge, signed up and set a goal of £250 for the month. No going back now, people have already paid to witness this!

Day 1 came around, I was nervous! I wanted to see how far I could run in one go. This was the longest I think I had ever ran. By no stretch a bad run at all for a rookie, but definitely not one to write home about. My little (but not so little) brother Ben (who is also one of my biggest heroes and motivations who you will no doubt read a lot about in the following blogs as we catch up to present day) dragged me along by the scruff of my neck and kept me going throughout this dramatic entry to the month.

I don't often feel proud of myself, but achieving this on day 1 really made me feel good. I posted this run to Facebook, mainly with the aspiration to hold myself accountable and about 25 minutes afterwards I had reached my £250 goal. I remember being so overwhelmed by the generosity of my nearest and dearest and it felt amazing, until I remembered I still had 16 miles to run.

Day 11 came, I had reached the distance goal and had raised an absolutely mind boggling £834. I did the easy part, I was humbled by the generosity. But there was still plenty of days left in the month so why stop there.

I kept going like a much lesser version of Forrest Gump and ended up totalling just short of 54 miles for the month, raising over £1000 for Prostate Cancer.

Over the course of that month, I did various different length and speed runs but one thing I did notice was the satisfaction I got from doing it.

Not once did I run and regret doing it and that's when it got me.