Hey, I’m Steve. I live near Winchester in Hampshire, England, with my wife and two adult kids. I work as a lawyer specialising in housing and asset management litigation but, let’s be honest, the slightest mention of the law is usually enough to kill a conversation so you’re forgiven if you want to stop reading here.
In 2015 I was overweight and unfit; some might say a fat bastard. I couldn’t blame a bad diet because I ate relatively healthily. The problem was that for the past few years (well, lots of years) I’d been eating far too much, working stupid hours in a highly stressful job, and making no time for exercise. Gradually I’d gone from a pretty active lifestyle to a largely sedentary one and undoubtedly my long-term health was suffering as a result.
I’m no great runner, by any means. I’m at an ordinary – or perhaps more like mediocre – level. But that’s not the point. The point is whether or not I improved over yesterday. In long-distance running the only opponent you have to beat is yourself, the way you used to be
Haruki Murakami
Fed up with my ever-expanding waistline and being the brunt of the the fat boy jokes in the office, and blessed with the golden opportunity presented by a new job that finally allowed me to balance my work and life, I resolved to do whatever it took to get fit.
I’ll be honest, I like my food way too much for a fad diet to either interest me or to work so in October that year I joined my local gym where I mostly swam and did a couple of strength workouts each week. Coupled with keeping a bit of a closer eye on what I was eating (mostly how much I was eating), the weight slowly started to come off.
I used to run as a kid (nothing competitive mind, just a bit of cross-country with a neighbour) but, seeing the great progress made by a friend who’d incorporated running into their own fitness journey, I was inspired to go out and buy a new pair of trainers and give it a go myself.
At first I was doing short, slow runs on the treadmill as a warm-up for my strength training but when, in the spring of 2016, a friend suggested that I try Parkrun I was firmly bitten by the running bug and it’s fair to say that I haven’t looked back since.
Anyone who knows me well will know that if I resolve to do something I will give it my all and that I’m a firm believer in the philosophy of “go hard or go home”, something I now know is due to my ADHD. So it was that in October 2016 I took on my first half marathon in Bournemouth, which I finished in 1:51:09, without having raced any of the shorter distances. Having finished feeling that I had more in the tank, I started thinking about going further.
The marathon became an itch that needed to be scratched and in the spring of 2017 I ran my first in Brighton in 4:06:12. I’d been aiming to debut with a sub-4 but a sudden heatwave scotched that ambition and I had to wait until 2018 (and another bloody hot day) to achieve it. Since then I’ve gone on to complete several more marathons (with a current PB of 3:39:22 in Manchester in 2019) and a 50 km ultra.
When I set out on this journey I wanted to lose weight. I’m obviously chuffed to have achieved that but, much more significantly and perhaps rather unexpectedly, running has become an integral and important part of my life.
It’s fair to say that I’ve become a fan of the longer distance. I think that’s because of the routine and structure of training (that’ll be my autism shining through) and the mental and physical challenge that it entails, and I’ve found great joy in being in nature and losing myself on the trails (sometimes literally) rather than constantly pounding the pavements. It’s one of the few times that my noisy brain is quiet.
In addition to running for my own pleasure, I’ve qualified with England Athletics as a running coach (CiRF), run leader (LiRF), and guide runner for the visually impaired and I’m currently studying for the event group coach award in endurance running.
I run and coach with Hedge End Running Club. Outside of that, running has afforded me a number of other opportunities; for example, I’ve been lucky enough to have paced numerous events up to the half marathon distance and I have been a brand ambassador for Balega socks and Kyloe in the Wild sunglasses.
In recent years I’ve found out that I’m neurodivergent – specifically, AuDHD – which, as I’ve alluded to above, explains an awful lot of who I am. My journey of self-discovery and unmasking is ongoing and something that I will be writing more on in this blog.
So, this is my story. If you’ve made it this far well done and welcome along for the ride…
