It was 1st January 2024, and I was not a runner.
In fact, running was the furthest thing from my mind. It wasn’t something I could think about without being reminded of having to run around the sports field in secondary school – a punishment for not being one of the fastest, strongest, most athletic students.
It’s an activity that I have never enjoyed, or even always been capable of. I have asthma, which I was once hospitalised for. And, as a result of my working lifestyle, I weighed 154kg (340lb) at the age of 43, and had a 54” (137cm) waist to match!
So, as you can imagine, when the topic of running came up, it wasn’t because of me. Instead, as I was lying in bed at the end of New Year’s Day, my amazing wife Sarah turned to me and said: “The York 10K is coming up this year; perhaps I should run this one?”
It’s something she’s been wanting to do for nearly 10 years, so of course I urged her to sign up. After all, this year’s was due to be held on her birthday – a sure sign that the universe was telling her to go and apply.
“Oh, I’m not sure,” she responds.
“Tell you what, what if I run this with you? We’ll do it for your birthday and enjoy the experience together.”
So it was decided, and from there we both raced to see who could sign up the quickest.
But then I remembered: I am not a runner.
By this point, I was 45 years old, and I had reduced my weight to just 94kg (207lb) with a 32” (81cm) waist. I was also a specialist in transforming busy, overweight business owners and consultants into fitter, happier, and more confident versions of themselves. But I was living in my comfort zone.
Now, it was time to face the running demons, because supporting my wife will always be more important to me than my own comfort. It speaks to my highest value of always being there for my family.
As I looked ahead to the race, I was reminded of a conversation I had been fortunate enough to have with an ultramarathon runner nearly 20 years ago. It was about the whole idea of comfort, learning, growth, and panic zones. He gave me this lovely analogy of thinking of your comfort zone a bit like a hula hoop. This is where the vast majority of people live their lives – inside the hoop. As they move through life, all they do is push it forward so that it’s touching their back, and then they shuffle forward a bit more before they push it forward again. And that’s what they spend their entire life doing, not getting very far, because they’re not pushing themselves any further than the hoop.
I remember that he advocated grabbing a hold of this hula hoop and just throwing it as far as possible, and then running to catch up. This is how he pushed himself in all sorts of ways.
As an ex-footballer who went on to do marathons, he found the races too sedate. So, to push himself, he did three marathons a month. And when that became too easy, he started doing triathlons, Ironmans, and ultra-triathlons. Then they became too easy, so he invented his own challenges, such as swimming the Straits of Gibraltar, then cycling from Gibraltar up to Monaco, and running from Monaco to Cannes.
Now it was my turn to grab the metaphorical hula hoop, throw it, and (literally) learn to run after it.
I’d love to say that it was easy, that I started running and loved it. But life isn’t like that, and the reality is that it wasn’t easy.
I started training in February, as soon as I’d returned from a snow sculpting competition in Nayoro, Japan. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t even run more than 1K, and even that was very slow – barely more than a walk! Every step felt like I was going to die. Then, to top it off, it would take me hours to recover.
However, I knew how to capitalise on my initial momentum and build repetition, consistency, and perseverance. That’s just what I did when I was transforming my body. It’s also how I’ve been able to transform businesses since 1993, working with companies on major changes ranging from $16bn digital asset transfers and £15bn airport purchases, to £1bn-£2bn growth structures and many multi-million-dollar improvement programmes.
To help me along the way, I reached out for expert advice on things like breathing techniques and training methods. In this way, I was able to improve my running little by little – literally step by step – and that’s how things started to change.
Sarah and I took part in our first Parkrun on the recommendation of our accountant, and we thoroughly enjoyed it, both of us making it to running 5K nonstop! As I continued training, I saw my VO2 max (the maximum amount of oxygen my body can absorb and use during aerobic exercise) grow from 34.8 (low) at the start to 47 (high).
Then came the day of the York 10K…
I completed it in under an hour (56 minutes) and raised money for the RNLI! I didn’t think that was too bad for someone who was a non-runner at the start of the year.
During this time and inspired by friends, I applied for the 2025 TCS London Marathon. Despite not getting selected in the ballot, I wasn’t deterred.
A friend of mine, Gabe, who is an ultramarathon runner, suggested joining him for the Milton Keynes marathon on 5th May 2025, and that one I was accepted to. Then Run for All, the race organisers of the York 10K, invited me to the Rob Burrows Leeds marathon, set to be held less than a week later on 11th May 2025. It was only a week after that that the Teenage Cancer Trust reached out to ask if I would run on their behalf in the London Marathon at the end of April 2025, which I am incredibly proud to do. It’s funny how these things work out.
Like many families, ours has been affected by cancer. I lost my uncle, my father’s twin brother, to pancreatic cancer. My father himself survived thyroid cancer and bouts of skin cancer. The hardest, though, was when my cousin’s daughter was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma at age 14. Even though there was an initial reprieve, it soon came back. Despite best efforts, expert treatment, and incredible support from the Teenage Cancer Trust unit at the Leeds General Infirmary, she lost her brave battle five years later.
In October of this year, Sarah and I ran the Yorkshire 10 Mile race to fundraise for the Teenage Cancer Trust. This time, I was able to finish in one hour and 26 minutes – when, eight months earlier, I couldn’t even run 1K! I never dreamed that I would be able to run 16.1K in such a reasonable time.
I believe I can no longer say that I am not a runner. Now, I love to play at running.
At the end of the day, what lights me up more than anything is seeing the profound improvement in others’ lives, their careers, their businesses, and their own senses of happiness and joy, all as a result of their newfound freedom and confidence from health and fitness. In other words, I love to inspire people and support them to make it easy to fit health into their busy lifestyles. To do that effectively, I have to lead by example.
I have never run a marathon before, and I have no idea if I can complete one – let alone three within just 14 days, only 14 months after starting to run!
But I have thrown my metaphorical hula hoop even further out in front of me for everyone to see and now continue to run, trying to catch up with it.
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This Post is republished on Medium.
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Photo credit: iStock
