• Member of Essington Harriers since 2022

Started running again in the late 70’s early 80’s just to get fit to keep up with our two girls, and ran a couple of marathons in the Birmingham area before the London got started. A few years after joining a local club I coached a group of Minor Girls to Senior Ladies, a number went on to represent England, Scotland and Great Britain.

In the early 90’s I contracted a work related chest problem that curtailed my running for a number of years, and after nearly 10 years of being fed up with the Doctors not getting to the bottom of it I started Jogging again to see if that would help. At the age of 55 I ran the 2006 Wolverhampton Half Marathon with very little training this kick started me to get training again properly, and the following year’s had successes mainly on the masters scene.

For some unknown reason I ended up in the wilderness for a number of years and only ran (or attempted to) a parkrun every week, in the end it was a choice between wine or running and I chose the latter. Lock down helped me a lot with nothing else to do but run to get me outside. I was running well just after my 70th birthday and lock down had ended, till I lost form may be due to two bouts of Covid and a hernia.

I had always run on my own and looked for a club, but did not want clubs I had been in before with lots of politics so I thought I would give Essington Harriers a try and joined in November 2022. It turned out to be the right decision as it is not elitist or take thing too serious, just book your run and turn up and run with everyone willing to help each other.