Becoming "a runner"

Up until that stage (2004) I had never considered myself a runner. I was just someone who ran, but this was all about to change. I joined Bellahouston Road Runners and started training more regularly 3, 4, 5 times a week became the norm. Two speed sessions and a longer run or a race at the weekend became a habit, but my old habits hadn’t quite been consigned to history and  work hard, train hard, play hard was the order of the day. Many a long run/race day start line was clouded by the night before.

I began to grown in confidence as new PB’s became a frequent occurrence and I loved the thrill of racing. Over the next year I raced 5k’s, 10k’s 1/2M’s, cross country and I raced a lot. In 2005 I counted that I had ran 27 races in the one season.

2005 marked an important change in my running for two reasons. One I decided to run my first marathon and two I started hill running. I said to myself I would run one marathon, train hard, and if I could break 3 hours, that would be it, I’d go back to shorter distances. Marathon training was too much work!! I ran Edinburgh marathon in 2:50 and a negative split.

Until that stage a few of my club mates had talked about hill running but I always thought that to be a hill runner you had to run up all the hills and I just couldn’t contemplate how that was possible. Anyway the appeal of getting to run and get into the hills eventually got the better of me and I entered my first hill race the Whangie Whizz (Queen’s view). From then on I was hooked. The laid back, friendly atmosphere of hill racing sucked me in. The fact that you could enter on the day, pay a few quid to race and often get soup, cakes and even beer after was the perfect way to integrate running and my social life into one.

 For the next few years my plan to run one marathon and then go back to short distances didn’t quite pan out. For the next 6 years my seasons typically consisted on a spring marathon, then spending the summer focusing on hill running. Running 6 days a week was the norm and in the run up to a marathon 2 days doing double sessions helped me lower my marathon time to 2:34:59. I was very happy to run that time in my home town of Belfast coming in 7^th in 2009 and 8^th in 2010.

The buzz of racing, the desire to set new PB’s and the base it gave me for the season kept me running marathons, but what I enjoyed the most was the days away with friends running in the hills.

My hill running progressed and I managed a couple of wins and in 2008, was picked to run for the West of Scotland, nothing life changing but it was nice to be picked all the same.