My running, like most people, started at school and I was one of the strange kids that actually enjoyed cross country and joined the Norton school running club. I remember watching the early London Marathons and being in awe and thinking only proper athletes did that. I was never any good, but I enjoyed it.

Well, again like lots of people, when I finished school the running stopped and for me alcohol and motorbikes became much more interesting, and at the age of 25 I started motorcycle racing. Not long after I started I realised that I needed to get myself fit again, so along with cycling I started jogging again. It was slow and probably no more than a couple of miles (no Garmin then). It definitely helped though, and after about 7 or 8 years of it and a few 2nd 3rd and 4th places in national club championships, and of course meeting my now wife Jo - I like to tell her she’s the best trophy I ever won! Well, it all went a bit wrong with a 120 mph crash at Cadwell Park and a shattered hand/wrist/arm and nearly 4 months off work!!! So with a mortgage to pay we decided maybe it was time to pack it in and be sensible - although I’m still thinking of having another go!!!

So over the next few years again running dropped out of my life and with  career changes that eventually took me to lorry driving for Sainsburys my fitness dropped and my weight rocketed, so I took up golf and after seeing a photo of a charity golf day that my wife took and seeing 6 or 7 typical rather round truck drivers I was horrified that I was the one in the middle (getting close to 18 stone). So it was off to GL14 gym (now Bannatynes) and having improved my fitness a bit I spotted a poster for Standalone 10k (2008 I think) and my gym instructor challenged me to do it, so I started running to the gym and back very slowly with a workout in the middle and then realised I enjoyed the running much more than the gym. Well Standalone arrived and I was so pleased/surprised to finish in 59 minutes that I was hooked so I carried on doing more running and my next 2 Standalone’s got slower by a minute each time!!! So my neighbour convinced me to join the Road Runners as they were doing a beginners group. Well what a difference training and encouragement made: 2011 Standalone was done in 54 minutes (I think).

More 10ks followed, getting down to 50 minutes and 10 mile races and half marathons, my first being St Albans, and I remember finishing in about 2 hours 30 and saying “I am never doing anything like that again”. Well later that day I was entering another one!!!

And then I just thought I’d put in for the London Marathon because I won’t get in.........well you guessed it: Got in first time! Again, with help/advice and great encouragement from the fantastic club, I was so pleased - not to say amazed - to finish in 4h 23 and ran all the way. I’ve now done 5 marathons which I would have said was impossible as that 18 stone trucker.

I have to thank the wonderful members and coaches for all the help, encouragement and fun over the years, and I feel I have made some great friends at the club too. Recently, I have been struggling with my running mojo, but I’m still getting great encouraging messages from club friends that are getting me to put those trainers on and get out there. And like the kid at school, I’m still never going to be any good, but I enjoy it.

Running? This was just not part of my upbringing. So, bear with me when I am trying to set the scene to my running story. Dad cycled and played squash, and mum played and watched tennis. And for me, at an early age, I stumbled (literally, as I was not very talented) into gymnastics. My younger sister followed suit but turned out to be a natural, quickly progressing to the competition squad. One day a member of my sister’s team was missing for a key competition and for the lack of a better alternative, I was summoned to make up the numbers. After that, I remained in the competition squad. Still not talented, but very determined (stubborn one could say), I slowly earned my place in that squad. I never acquired the grace needed for a beautifully looking beam routine, but I learned that with blood (yes, my hands often), sweat (no comments) and tears (well I was a teenage girl after all), one can achieve a lot and my vault, bars and tumbling routines became pretty decent.

From about 15, I started coaching gymnastics, and by the time I was about 20, while still actively competing, I was a member of the coaching team, sat on my clubs and regional competition committee (no surprise there), coached other coaches and delivered strength and conditioning sessions for the local swimming/triathlon club.

Fast forward to 1998, an opportunity arose to move to England for work. I naturally joined the closest gymnastics club (Marriotts) but discovered that the club’s and regional set up at that time didn’t help with establishing my new UK-based social life (I won the 3 counties over 14’s competition at the age of 27, and on a hangover – say no more). A chronic shoulder inflammation and sampling too many English puddings convinced me that I had to try something else. The work gym was the choice but was mostly boring (I say mostly, as I met my husband Steve there). I joined a Taekwondo club and my flexibility put me at an advantage but didn’t have the desired weight loss effect. So, I started running on the treadmill….

While I had considered myself quite fit, there had never previously been a need for me to run more than 22.25 meters (my run-up to vault) so this wasn’t easy. I persevered, and after a few months, work hosted a 5 mile race that some work friends had entered. Thinking ‘how bad could it be?’, I entered too …. Well, the first mile or so was OK, and then my laces came undone. I stopped to tie them and then sprinted to catch my friends. That sprint happened to be the steep hill in Ware (for those of you who know, will know) and the damage was done. I barely made it to the finish, in pain I had never experienced before. I didn’t run again for at least 2 or 3 weeks after that.

Once the pain (or humiliation) was forgotten, I started running more regularly at lunchtimes and it didn’t take long before some work NHRR folks asked me to join them: Paula Adam, Nick Smithers and Ian Owens to name a few. The perseverance I learned from my gymnastics days certainly helped when they took me along to do hill reps in Knebworth Park or the infamous ‘eight ploughed fields’ loop. 

Not too long after, I did my first Standalone 10k and signed up to become a member of NHRR straight after the race. I started training at the club (Wednesdays only) and I still remember my first race for NHRR, the XC in Wootton with everyone calling me Ingrid (some people still do). Despite the name faux pas, I was taken by the inclusiveness and tolerance of the club: it didn’t matter where you came from and what you did, there was no judging. This felt like a family, just like the one I left behind with my gymnastics club.

Now, nearly 20 years later, I could not imagine not being a squirrel. I have met so many amazing people and had so many opportunities, not just running-wise but also by getting involved in club matters. I have learned things about myself that possibly not many other sports could have taught me. But most importantly, I have made many good friends and even more good memories for life.

Thank you NHRR