InspiredToRun.co.uk

Last year I visited London on the weekend of the Marathon; my now ex-girlfriend was to be running, and I was there for a bit of support on the day. At 6' 2", and just over 18 stone, I’m not the average build of someone who would enjoy running - infact, I hated the very thought of it.

It was now around four hours since I had parted company with my ex-girlfriend as she’d gone to the start line, and those next four hours have inspired me like nothing else I have ever witnessed in my life. The atmosphere, the adrenaline, the excitement, and I wasn’t even running!

Those four hours have given me the encouragement, enthusiasm and commitment to make myself fit, to stick to a sensible diet, to not drink four cans of Stella a day. I could not believe what I was thinking when that race was taking place: the one thought that was (and still is) at the front of my mind is “I Will Run A Marathon.”

Despite a little gap in my training over the past few summer months owing to injury, my training routine has been quite strict - no more kebabs, no more junk food, alcohol in moderation (one step at a time).Eighteen months later, I’m now a much healthier 15 stone, I have definition in my muscles, I wake up easily in the morning, it’s no longer a fight to get myself to do the daily things that life demands, and I actually enjoy nothing more than getting my running kit on, doing a warm up – a few stretches - and going for a run past the local pubs I used to drink in most of my time. The pub crawl isn’t any longer a crawl at all - it’s more of a pub run.

I’m now at the stage where I can manage an 18K several times a week on a treadmill, and I try my best to do a 20K road run every six weeks or so.

I won’t say it's been easy. At times it’s bloody hard. But my motivation is that of the feeling you must get when you cross that finish line after running your first marathon. I have hit a bit of a wall with my training, and I’m finding it a little hard to progress any further, but I’ve come this far, and there is no way I’m backing out now!