Who am I?
I’m James and if you’re here, you need to know, I love running. This hasn’t always been the case though, continue reading to find out more about my journey.
A few years ago, I was the person you’d find in the pub most nights of the week after work, with what would start out as being just one pint but almost always ended up with more. I’m not going to lie to you, I enjoyed it and thought I was really living my best life. To give you an idea of how much alcohol I was able to put away, for my 19th birthday drinks, I drank around 16 pints, 16!! Yes of course I was drunk, but not nearly as drunk as I should have been.
The next day I was out for a nice lunch to celebrate and obviously, after 16 pints, I was not feeling my best. I thought to myself, this is not good James, something needs to give. What then sent me over the edge was seeing some less than flattering pictures my friends had taken of me passed out on a bus after a few drinks. My wake up alarm bell was ringing loud now.
The following week I started looking at gyms, and ended up signing up to a PureGym, I thought let’s start cheap just in case. In an almost self punishment way, I decided to go to 6:45 am classes before work, now that was a massive struggle especially for someone who had always struggled to sleep. I remember that first spin class I went to, I was so unfit, I just couldn’t keep up with the class and even with an instructor trying to motivate us, I could barely keep up. But I felt proud of myself for going and little did I know that this was just the beginning.
This then escalated to ClassPass because I was looking for a gym that had towel service as I thought, if this is what I want to do, might as well do it right. This took me to Victus Soul, a little boutique gym in East London. It was here that my journey really went to the next level as there was one particular gym instructor who inspired me to really focus on my fitness and be proud of where I was going. My priorities in life started changing from here on out, I spent less time at after work drinks as I would purposefully book early morning gym classes in order to force myself to go to bed early.
After some time getting fitter and leaner a friend of mine said he’d signed up for the Edinburgh Marathon, I couldn’t say no. We’d done all previous distances for the first time together, 10ks and a half marathon, when we both lived in Spain years before. So I had no choice, I signed up.
During this period I had lots of ups and downs, many morning classes were missed, and injuries popped up left right and centre. Even getting a really bad case of runners knee weeks out from the Edinburgh Marathon. The physio I went to see recommended not to do it, but could see in my eyes that I was still going to do it. Luckily she said that there would be no lasting damage if I ran, but that it would be a very painful experience so to take lots of ibuprofen and paracetamol (not official advice).
So on race day I laced up my shoes and went for it. Never again! One of the most painful experiences I’ve ever been through. I remember having tears in my eyes coming up to the finish line, I think a mixture of relief that it was all over and just immense pride in myself that I actually finished it.
I haven’t looked back since then, having been collecting medals mession across multiple 10ks, half marathons and now 5 marathons (with 3 more in the pipeline this year).
Beyond the medals, running has provided me with so much more than that in other areas of life. I now have a healthier outlook on life, a group of friends where we all support each other with our goals, and I think a big one now, is a fresh perspective on alcohol.
I know a lot of people struggle to enjoy running, or just don’t even know where to start and I totally get why. But I truly believe that running is for everyone and you just need to find the right way. This is why JC Running Coach was born to help people on their running journeys whether that’s to get a new PB, to just get out the door, or need help to find the love in running.
Who knows, maybe you’ll end up loving running as well, but you won’t know until you give it a go so get in contact with me now.
JC Running Coach 