Believe In Yourself
A LITTLE ABOUT ME.
In the beginning
WHERE IT ALL STARTED
My name is Andy and I am a runner. Ok, that might be a bit of an understatement. I am a passionate and experienced runner. Me and Louise, are both outdoor enthusiast with over 20 years of experience.
I did a bit of running at Uni or thought I did (did a 10km Manchester ), didn’t get great times but I also didn’t do much-running training. I did some on a treadmill and would do an odd couple of mile run. I probably thought at the time I can run 4 miles it’s only a little bit further.
Then in 2012 my wife, Louise gave birth to our first child and two days after I went out to wet the babies head I did Sheffield 10k again (my worst ever a time for a 10k, I was still hungover), but I was overweight and it got me thinking,
I don’t want to be one of those dad’s that can’t play football with my kids at the park, chase them around a field etc so I start doing a bit more running in early Jan 2013.
start today
TIME FOR A CHANGE
EAT.
SLEEP.
RUN.
REPEAT.
Take Your First Step Now
MAKE THE IMPOSSIBLE POSSIBLE.
By then I was really really unfit and had to start slowly I was struggling to do 1k, yeah I was really unfit, by Feb 2013 I set myself a target to run 5k every day for the month and really push myself and got my times down to about 33 minutes – not great but I still wasn’t fit and remember a month before I couldn’t run 1k so was happy.
In Feb / March, I turned up to do my first Parkrun. I went for it, even though it was very muddy I got sub 30 and I was buzzing. I was addicted and kept going for a few weeks and then this old guy kept giving me tips as I would pass him, but by lap 3 he would then pass me. I always set off too fast.
Then the week I passed him, he said now come down to the local running club and give it ago to improve, even more, I was unsure but he said to try it for a few weeks, won’t cost you anything and see what it’s like.
Well I turned up and it was good, they are a great running club. About two weeks later he was talking to someone about doing Mablethorpe Marathon and I thought if he is 68/69 then I have no excuse why I can’t do one (bearing in mind at this point the furthest I had run was maybe 6/7 miles with the club. Furthest I had raced was 10k – but in my mind. A marathon is roughly 4 x 10ks. So with a bit of training, I could do it.
We had 5 months to train. I might cover in an article later at a later date about the training and the race, but I did do it and got a little addicted to marathons.
This site is was then created to log my training for my first Ultra Marathon – Race to the Kings a nice 53-mile race.
A race i had to DNF after medical advice at 36 mile mark – but that gave me for the thirst for Ultra marathons.
In 2017 – I decided to go again and attempted Endure 24 – Leeds. A 24 hour race of a 5 mile lap.
The training went well, even in training run’s I was setting PB’s at Manchester Marathon – I was using race day tactics and it worked perfectly.
Let’s go
ENDURE 24 LEEDS 2020
They do say who ever attempts to run ultra-marathons has to be a bit crazy, its putting your body through extreme’s for “fun” that you pay for.
But I have signed back up for Endure 24 Leeds again in July 2020. That didn’t happen for obvious reasons, but I am in the 2021 race so lets see what happens.
As my kids are getting older and I am my oldest football coach and help with the middle child’s football team it does mean I don’t have as much time to run.
So for a few years this will be my last chance to break the 100 mile barrier.
Follow me on my training through the ups and the downs – I will be honest if nothing, there will be downs and days when I don’t want to run.
Key Question
WHY AIR BENEATH MY FEET
Any runner knows the feeling of the photographer getting a picture with air beneath your feet. Its a great feeling and means you was really pushing hard.
