John Manning

In 2000, age 46, the place where I work treated me and a number of other mid-lifers to a so called survival course. It was run by a nutritionist ("nutter"), a psychologist("psycho") and a sports physiologist ("fizzie") with a yoga teacher and masseuse thrown in for good measure. The nutter told us to stop drinking coffee and start eating primal food, the psycho advised shaping our days so that we had time to do things that were important and the fizzie put us through some aerobic exercise and then took us off for a run. Two of the things that stuck with me were "you may not think you are putting on weight but every year that goes by without exercise, muscle is replaced by fat" and "you all think you will die of heart disease brought on by stress. You won't but, without exercise, you will find it increasingly difficult to get out of a chair and your muscles and skeleton will give up on you". Guess what, I gave up coffee (temporarily), I shaped the days, I started running and I haven't stopped yet. 

Recent PBs

5K 19:40  
5M 33:48  
10K 41:12  
10M 67:37  
1/2 Marathon 1.33:39  
Marathon 3.28:34  

Highlights
It has to be winning prize money in a race - a tenner for 3rd vet 50 at St Albans in 2006.

Aims
To keep enjoying running - a few more PBs (and prize money) will be a bonus

Rave Run
Along the beach early in the morning on summer holidays anywhere in the tropics and sinking into the sea at the end

Best Training Run
To the top of Pitstone Hill for the view - it changes with the weather and seasons but is always spectacular