My father was a decent standard marathon runner and still ranks in the top 5 UK all time in his age group, running 2 hrs 30 at the age of 50 in the London Marathon.  He encouraged me to start running at the age of 9.

I joined Bournemouth Athletic Club after I had represented my School, District and County at local and National Cross Country Races when I was 13 and 14.  In the early years I was never particularly successful or considered to be a talented runner, and boys of the same age as me who never seemed to train, always seemed to beat me, which was very frustrating.  However, I persisted and kept going up through the age groups, never with too much success, but lots of enjoyment and  enjoyed the travelling to different places with the Club to Track,X country or Road Races.

Whilst living in Germany I decided to run the Berlin marathon at the age of 18 off track training, finished in 2hrs 40 and was the first under 20 male. In hindsight, it was not such a good idea to run the marathon off 20 miles per week training, as it took me a few months to recover and be able to race properly again!!

I progressed steadily through my early twenties to be a decent Club runner, getting down to 32 mins for 10K and 52 mins for 10 miles, and 68 minutes for half marathon.

The combination of persistence and hooking up with a group of lads from Annadale Striders in my mid twenties helped me to move on to the next level.  The twice a week track sessions with a group of 6 to 8 sub 30 minute 10k runners began to pay off.

After 12 months of intense training with the group, up from 50 to average 80 miles per week, I managed to improve my  5k to 14.20, 10k to 29.20 and half marathon in just over 65 minutes.  I still hold the record of 22.48 for a local 5m road race I was winning most of my road and cross country races and was performing consistently well in all races even after a heavy weeks training. I twice finished in the top 10 in the English Southern Counties X Country over 9 miles, and represented Northern Ireland in the World Cross Country in Poland.

My gradual progression to international level was not down to having a particular inherited talent, but rather to persistence, commitment, willingness to listen and learn from experienced athletes, and most importantly a love of the sport and competing against myself, to be the best I could be.

I have learnt by mistakes, and know how not to train, what works and what is likely to lead to stress and injuries, when to rest and when to push hard.  The body can and will adapt amazingly to work and the stresses put on it, and the results can be quite amazing. Running is not a complicated science, but it does take a little guidance and planning to help athletes to get to the best they can be.

By dedicating over 30 years of running experience to your personal RunCoaching programme, I  aim to achieve and surpass all of your goals and expectations

 

 

 

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