How long have you been a member of QPH?
Despite living (and running) in the area for the last 18 years, I only joined QPH last year, in March. So it’s nearly my QPH 1st birthday.
What do you like most (and least!) about running?
I love running because it’s my me time. Obviously there are physical fitness benefits to it, but I find it’s vital for my mental fitness. I’m something of an introvert, and I really enjoy my own time, so to go out for a run with a podcast / book on is something that I really value.
Since I joined QPH, I’ve enjoyed the social side of it more too. I used to (occasionally) do parkrun and I’d get to the end, see people chatting, but not knowing anyone I’d just jog off home. Now, I look forward to having a catch up with people from the club afterwards.
What do I like least about running? Very little! I guess savage headwinds are something I could take or leave, but that’s about it.
What is your favourite running event?
While I’ve entered some events, they’ve never been the be all and end all of running for me. As mentioned already, it’s the me time and now the social aspect that running provides, so I’d probably say that parkrun is my favourite.
If I can change the question to my favourite running distance – I love a half marathon. Long enough to be a nice long run – but not crazy!
Do you have a greatest running achievement?
I can’t decide between the only two marathons I’ve completed – so I’ll mention them both and be brief:
2017 London Marathon. Having lost my Dad, this was a chance to get a life box ticked, and raise some money for Cystic Fibrosis. Wanting to make my Dad proud of me, I set 2 ridiculous goals. 1. Run it in sub 3½ hours. 2. Raise £26,385. The running goal – I just missed: 3.32.54. The fundraising goal – I smashed, I ended up raising over £43k, which I still can’t believe actually happened.
2022 Ironman Maryland, Run. I’m not sure anything can quite prepare you for running a marathon having already swum 2.4 miles and cycled 112 miles, but that’s Ironman for you. At mile 17 there was a scheduled nutrition stop – but I couldn’t keep anything down. Quite how I got through to mile 22/3 I don’t know, but then I had a second wind. I have never felt elation like I did for the last 3 or 4 miles, and I crossed the line in 4.44.34.
What else do you do that you would like to tell people about?
I’ve mentioned triathlon (although running is my favourite part, I promise), so aside from that:
I have two kids (Alfie 14 & Maggie Mae 11).
My other half, Hannah, is a pottery teacher
I love snowboarding, photography and F1
I spend way too much time getting depressed about how far Spurs are behind Arsenal in the league
Tell us something that other members might not know…
One or two of the members do know this… but I drive an orange 1971 VW Beetle.