I want to fit in a rugby shirt

Over the last few months I've been getting involved with the Bristol branch of SANDS (Stillbirth and Neonatal Death). Every year from 9th - 15th October is 'Baby Loss Awareness Week'. One of the committee members (Abbie) was organising a virtual challenge for anyone who wanted to take part. It was up to everyone what distance they wanted to do - it could be a 5k, 10k, a cumulative distance over the month. I decided (inspired by a friend from Bristol Sands - Hilary) I was going to run 27 miles. Denise was 27 weeks pregnant when our angel baby Thomas was born sleeping so the distance seemed very apt. 27 miles was also just over 40 kilometres and 2018 is the 40th anniversary of the founding of SANDS which over the last few months has become incredibly important to us. However over the last couple of months I'd only run a handful of times. Mainly because I'd injured my back at the beginning of July so I knew the first few runs of this challenge might be hard wo

Now that's something I never envisaged saying - I completed the Bristol 10k. I did - on Sunday 13th May 2018. Its a couple of weeks since the run and every time I think about it I'm buzzing about it!! So if anyone has read any of my blogs before then you'll know that about a year ago I decided to try and get fit (well I want to fit into a rugby shirt) and signed up to do a 5k run and spent a couple of months training on bike and running before tackling it. Since then I've done a couple of more Park Runs and the Mo Run as well as kept up running through the winter. Late last year as I found how much I enjoyed running I'd contemplated doing the Bristol 10k in 2018, but thought that doing it in May might be to early for me to achieve the distance. The more I thought about it I spoke to friends who'd done the Bristol 10k (and other 10k runs) and took encouragement from them and began to wonder if it was something I might actually be able to do. It would cer

My son (Harrison) has been on at me for some time to do another blog post, so I thought it was time that I sat down and did one. Most of my blog postings will be about my attempts to get fit and get into a rugby shirt, A change of pace for this one - it's why I'm not a fan of January... I don't like January, I just don't. It's unusual for me to have a particular feeling about a month or something obscure like that. I get that people can have favourite colours etc but I've never understood why people like particular days of the week, numbers or months. I didn't go in for that sort of thing (being a bloke) and never gave it any particular thought until a couple of weeks ago and a phone call my wife (Denise) got at 0418 on 2nd January this year. The phone call was from her Dad (Dave) to inform us that his wife (Cher) had passed away. She had lost her long and incredibly dignified battle with cancer. Denise's phone ringing had woken us both up and I knew