I’m sure most of the North East Runner bloggers will agree that it’s difficult to know where to start when writing your first blog. How on earth can you even begin to summarise years of training and racing, and the experiences that have led you to becoming the runner that you are today? Being a methodical kind of person I’ll start from the very beginning and see where I end up.
I was never a runner as a kid. Back then, like so many young lads from the North East, my passion was football, followed in a distant second by cricket. I had delusions that I was going to be the next Robert Lee, the driving force in midfield for my boyhood heroes at St James Park (for any younger readers out there think Yohan Cabaye at the Sports Direct Arena - doesn’t have quite the same ring does it?!).
I was never a runner as a kid. Back then, like so many young lads from the North East, my passion was football, followed in a distant second by cricket. I had delusions that I was going to be the next Robert Lee, the driving force in midfield for my boyhood heroes at St James Park (for any younger readers out there think Yohan Cabaye at the Sports Direct Arena - doesn’t have quite the same ring does it?!).
Put a ball at my feet and I would run all day. Without a ball I wasn’t even remotely interested in running a single step. That all changed when I turned 18 and left home to go off and study at Newcastle University. I’d had a couple of years of doing very little sport, going out drinking and discovering girls (as young lads tend to do), and had ballooned to well over 15 stone. Anyone who has met me during the last 12 years or so will probably find that hard to believe, but I promise my wife has the photographs to prove it. Where she keeps them I have absolutely no idea because she knows fine well that if I ever get my hands on them they’ll be set alight!
Once at University I started playing football again, and also began to run to supplement my football training and help shed a few pounds. Over the course of the next 9 months I lost more than five stone in weight and soon realised that I was running a lot more than I was playing football. I loved the freedom of being out running on the open road and the feeling of well-being at the end of a good hard run. So, when one of my housemates challenged me to run the Great North Run in 2000 I leapt at the chance and amazed myself by finishing in 1:27 off no structured training. All of a sudden I’d had a big wake-up call that, with some proper training, I had the potential to be a decent runner.
After a few more local road races I took the decision to join Elswick Harriers in July 2001 where I almost immediately linked up with one of the best distance running coaches in the region, Colin Bolton. Colin was like a father-figure to me over the next few years and, apart from my parents and wife, is undoubtedly the one person who has had the most influence on shaping me into the person that I am today. He taught me the importance of being patient with my running, and allowing progress to happen gradually, rather than rushing things and trying to do everything today. More significantly however (with me being a young lad at the time), he taught me the importance of looking after myself physically. After every training session that I did under Colin he would say “Straight home mind Mark”, always living in fear that I was going to go straight out for a night on the tiles and undo all of the hard work that I was doing in training.
Under Colin’s guidance I made steady but considerable improvements at all distances from 1500m and 3000m on the track, up to 5k and 10k on the roads. That was until January 2005 when I came undone by a severe case of glandular fever, so severe in fact that it effectively wiped me out of the sport for the best part of 18 months. I lost an awful lot of fitness during those 18 months and, at times, wondered whether I would ever run properly again. I sought advice from everyone I could on how to overcome the illness, and I will always remember speaking to the late Frank Horwill who said “Mark, there are two types of athlete - those who make a quick and full recovery from glandular fever, and those who never recover at all.”
Once at University I started playing football again, and also began to run to supplement my football training and help shed a few pounds. Over the course of the next 9 months I lost more than five stone in weight and soon realised that I was running a lot more than I was playing football. I loved the freedom of being out running on the open road and the feeling of well-being at the end of a good hard run. So, when one of my housemates challenged me to run the Great North Run in 2000 I leapt at the chance and amazed myself by finishing in 1:27 off no structured training. All of a sudden I’d had a big wake-up call that, with some proper training, I had the potential to be a decent runner.
After a few more local road races I took the decision to join Elswick Harriers in July 2001 where I almost immediately linked up with one of the best distance running coaches in the region, Colin Bolton. Colin was like a father-figure to me over the next few years and, apart from my parents and wife, is undoubtedly the one person who has had the most influence on shaping me into the person that I am today. He taught me the importance of being patient with my running, and allowing progress to happen gradually, rather than rushing things and trying to do everything today. More significantly however (with me being a young lad at the time), he taught me the importance of looking after myself physically. After every training session that I did under Colin he would say “Straight home mind Mark”, always living in fear that I was going to go straight out for a night on the tiles and undo all of the hard work that I was doing in training.
Under Colin’s guidance I made steady but considerable improvements at all distances from 1500m and 3000m on the track, up to 5k and 10k on the roads. That was until January 2005 when I came undone by a severe case of glandular fever, so severe in fact that it effectively wiped me out of the sport for the best part of 18 months. I lost an awful lot of fitness during those 18 months and, at times, wondered whether I would ever run properly again. I sought advice from everyone I could on how to overcome the illness, and I will always remember speaking to the late Frank Horwill who said “Mark, there are two types of athlete - those who make a quick and full recovery from glandular fever, and those who never recover at all.”
Looking back at what I’ve done since returning from the illness (I managed to resume structured training in late summer 2006) I’d say I definitely made a recovery of sorts. But, I’ve never been the same runner since the illness and have certainly never ran anywhere close to the times I was running for 5k/10k beforehand. I still have days where the symptoms of glandular fever affect me, meaning that I have to ease off training for a few days until things settle back down. At times I find that incredibly frustrating, but over time I have learnt how to manage my health and now feel that I can still train hard and run well.
My focus after returning from glandular fever shifted to the marathon, mainly because I wanted new challenges in my running and didn’t want to be always looking back and comparing myself to the times I had ran pre-glandular fever. The marathon fitted the bill perfectly. I debuted with a 2:58 clocking in Berlin in September 2007, and since then have gradually brought my time down to 2:46. Despite that improvement I feel like I’ve got unfinished business with the marathon and this year I’m aiming to lower my pb much further, firstly at the Greater Manchester Marathon on April 29th, and then at the Frankfurt Marathon in October.
These days I run for Crook & District AC having left Elswick Harriers last year following a house move to the Durham area. After 10 years at Elswick that was a very difficult decision to make but I parted on very good terms, remain in close contact with many of my former club mates, and still turn to Colin for advice from time to time. I’m also a coach myself these days and enjoy passing on my advice and experience to others.
So that’s me, and a quick summary of how i’ve got to where I am today! In my next blog I’ll take a look back over my training for the upcoming Manchester Marathon.
Happy running everyone!
My focus after returning from glandular fever shifted to the marathon, mainly because I wanted new challenges in my running and didn’t want to be always looking back and comparing myself to the times I had ran pre-glandular fever. The marathon fitted the bill perfectly. I debuted with a 2:58 clocking in Berlin in September 2007, and since then have gradually brought my time down to 2:46. Despite that improvement I feel like I’ve got unfinished business with the marathon and this year I’m aiming to lower my pb much further, firstly at the Greater Manchester Marathon on April 29th, and then at the Frankfurt Marathon in October.
These days I run for Crook & District AC having left Elswick Harriers last year following a house move to the Durham area. After 10 years at Elswick that was a very difficult decision to make but I parted on very good terms, remain in close contact with many of my former club mates, and still turn to Colin for advice from time to time. I’m also a coach myself these days and enjoy passing on my advice and experience to others.
So that’s me, and a quick summary of how i’ve got to where I am today! In my next blog I’ll take a look back over my training for the upcoming Manchester Marathon.
Happy running everyone!