I have forever had a love/hate relationship with running. I have always wanted it to be something I enjoy but for a long time it had just been an aspiration.

At Christmas of 2023 I saw some photographs of myself and thought “As I am getting married in a few months, I don’t want to look like this in my wedding photos, I will try the running thing again.” The wedding came and went and I had found myself enjoying running again – I ran my first 10k for years just before the big day and wanted to run further. I started training to be able to run the 21.1km of a half marathon towards the end of April, however I ended up injuring myself. Once I was back on my feet, a convinced me to run the Stroud Half Marathon with him and I had exactly the right amount of time to get a comprehensive training plan sorted.

This year, however, was marred by the loss of my 16 year old nephew to a sudden heart attack 10 days before the wedding. It was sudden and it was traumatic for my family. C-R-Y were exceptional at providing support for my older sister and her family when everything was at its most difficult. As I had signed up for the marathon, I decided that I should raise some money to give back to C-R-Y after all they had done for my family. At time of writing, the pot is over £650 and growing which was such an incredible outpouring of generosity, and far more than the arbitrary £500 I’d put as my goal amount!

The race day itself was about the most perfect conditions one could ask for. A crisp sunny autumnal morning; a little chilly at the starting line but I was at an ideal temperature by the 2nd mile. The furthest I had run in my training plan was 17km, and I was aiming to get a time around 2.5 hours. I won’t lie, the last few kilometres were a real slog but I crossed the line with a time of  2hours 23 minutes and 20 seconds.

Writing this the day after the event, stairs are still proving to be a challenge but I feel a tremendous sense of accomplishment. I wore my C-R-Y t-shirt with pride around the course. I am already thinking about the next one still, just might give it a few weeks…

Many thanks to the organisers of the Stroud Half Marathon are in order, as well as Stevie from C-R-Y.