I love endurance sport. I wouldn’t say I have always loved it. In Fact, I think back to when I was at school, those long cross country runs, I hated them! How funny it is to now look back and think that those runs wouldn’t even make a decent warm up now.

I guess the change came when I looked at my wedding photos. Looking back at me from those pictures I was an overweight lard arse. Don’t get me wrong. I was doing some sport, not much admittedly, but I was doing something. The problem was the combination of not enough exercise, rubbish diet and working 12-18 hours a day.

At 5′ 8″ (maybe 9″, I like to think of me being a 9″) and 15.5 stone I was well and truly a ‘blubber’. I purchased a bike. A nice one! a Giant Cadex – carbon with bonded tubes. I remember saying to myself that if I invested all the money I could spare, make a commitment then the chance of me continuing was always going to be greater…. I would feel guilty otherwise. I was no stranger to cycling, I had dabbled in my early to late teens but college and work had taken over. I was an avid Tour de France fan and all this meant I was already in a good place to progress. I remember I started cycling in June. Easy at first. As I got fitter I cycled farther. My diet was still rubbish. I knew nothing about good nutrition and my long work hours made time for food limited, hence, fast food was an easy option. Despite all this, 6 months later I went to my folks for Christmas. Mum as per usual had got me some clothes. Jeans in 36″ waist! I tried them on and they fell off….. without actually acknowledging the transformation in my body, I had gone from a 36″ waist to a 32″ and my weight had gone from 15.5 to 12 stone. I was addicted.

That is all in the past and some 20 years ago. Like so many ‘transformations’ my own personal one was significant. It has forged my life, driven me and made me the person I am now. Without going into too much detail I raced bikes until 2002 finally gaining Elite status. I raced in France, Spain and throughout the UK. I was never a big hitter but I had my moments.

After a year of ‘recovery’ in 2002 (I was burnt out with work and racing) I started to build myself up as a budding triathlete. I wanted to do an Ironman when I was 40!! Of course it was going to be ‘fun’. I didn’t have the time anymore….. I entered London Triathlon and low and behold I was 10th at my first attempt. 70.3 came then Ironman, I even represented GB in Australia for the World Duathlon Age Group Championships in 2005. I do nothing by half. I am committed and no matter how much I try to take a back seat I can’t. I am driven to be the best I can be.

In 2007 I was looking for a new challenge. Lying on a beach in Nice I started to read ‘Confessions of an all night runner’ by Dean Karnazes. Absolutely riveted, I read this book front to back as quickly as I could and then I read it again. This guy is NUTS I thought. Little did I know….. I decided to set myself the target to run 8 marathons in 8 days. This was to happen in 2008 and it all sounded pretty good, ‘8in8in08’. Mizuno sponsored me and running Fitness wrote about my progress on a monthly basis in the magazine. It was quite funny, at the time, 8 marathons seemed such an epic adventure, now it isn’t even worth writing about. Ranulph Fiennes and Mike Stroud had done 7 marathons on 7 continents and it was actually Mike Strouds book that had gven me the idea for the ‘8’.

I needed a route and a very good friend, Jon Glyde suggested that I run the ‘Thames Path’. It started not far from my home in Gloucestershire and went all the way to the Thames Barrier – 187 miles! Perfect. It was set. On the 8th day I would run London Marathon.

I started in earnest. Remember, I was no runner. Yes I had progressed and somehow taught myself how to run a marathon at the end of an Ironman, but 8 marathons was a monumental task for me. It was in this phase of training that I was introduced to Endurancelife. They had some tough marathons on a regular basis and they provided the corner stone of my training.

All was going fantastic. I had got sponsorship from South West Motorhomes with a free vehicle for the duration of my event. My Dad (my no1 fan) was all geared up to drive, crew and support me. As is often the case, just when all is going so well, disaster struck.

“I have cancer” my Dad said. Oh my God, I cannot explain the devastation those words have.

I couldn’t go on but Dad insisted that I had to and that I had to make him proud. I was left with a dilema. This was just ‘running’. How could I put running ahead of my Dad. after much thinking I decided to continue. No Motorhome, I would stay in B&B’s and a couple of great friends decided to help me out. As the ‘event’ came closer, Dad informed me that his operation was smack bang in the middle of the 8 marathons on the Wednesday. Whoa, this was too much….

I ran the 8 and on the Wednesday when I arrived at Henley on Thames, I jumped in a car, drove to Liverpool, took my Dad to hospital, admitted him, he had the Op, I waited for the all clear and then drove back to Henley for the next marathon. I finished the ‘8’ in London on the Sunday exhausted. Not physically but mentally. That evening I made the journey back to Liverpool to be with Dad. Job done! Boy was he proud. I was an ultra runner.

Dad passed away in January 2009.

Every run I do, every step I take in training and racing is in his name.

I am not he fastest runner. I am not the best by any stretch of the imagination. But I work hard, I love what I do and I promote all types of endurance sport. I coach, I plan training holidays and I race on a regular basis. This passion for my sport resulted in Andrew Barker from Endurancelife contacting me and asking if I would be a ‘Run Ambassador’.

Wow, a run Ambassador. Dad would be so proud. Without hesitation I accepted.

I am in some pretty exceptional company. The current team line up is:

• Neil Bryant
• Nicky Taylor
• Oliver Sinclair
• Tobias Mews
• Andrew Barker
• James Heraty

To be honest, I am a little intimidated. All of the above are great athletes. In particular I have immense admiration (because I already know them) for Oliver Sinclair and Neil Bryant. I have raced many times with Oli over the past few years. We sometimes are pretty close on the finish line but I know when it counts, I would just eat dust behind him if he put the hammer down. Neil is a formidable ultra runner and excels at the long stuff. He has had some great 100 mile results and in the not too distant future will be heading to Greece for ‘Spartathlon’. He also has some ‘epic’ journey planned for 2012 buy I will wait a while before I divulge the info on that.

I am looking forward to meeting the other guys and girls on the team as and when. I am also looking forward to maybe some possible team events. They don’t have to be races but challenges. One in particular is an attempt at the 180km of the GR20 in Corsica.

So, Endurancelife Ambassador I am. Nothing changes from my perspective. I will still be doing all I can to promote and help the endurance community. I now just have one extra string to the running bow.

Many thanks to Endurancelife for the opportunity and the faith in me.

Endurancelife website: http://www.endurancelife.com/index.asp

Ambassador Team on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.236630569715857.57681.103168123062103