Hello!  Thank you for checking out my running blog!

I am Kerry and until quite recently if you had told me I would love running as much as I do I would have questioned your ability to perceive and interpret reality.  And rightly so – at 91 kg, 162 cm tall with a BMI of 34.7 I was obese and something as strenuous as running couldn’t have been further from my mind.  Until one day – for a complex series of reasons – I decided to give running a go.

It was not easy (you can read about my first run here What a difference a year can make…) but I was mentally determined to complete the NHS couch to 5 K programme and run 5 K continuously (i.e. without pretending to tie my shoelaces or anything like that).

And then, naturally it seemed to follow that I would run a 10 K race (Combe – 22/02/15) and then a half marathon (Liverpool – 14/06/15) and then a full marathon (Lisbon – 18/10/15) and then an ultra (Chiltern Challenge 50 K – 16/07/16).  I have already run another ultra (The Trail Co. Exmoor Ultra 48.3 K -31/10/16) and have excitedly signed up to just a few more events even longer in 2017 – watch this space.  Suffice to say I have definitely caught the “running bug”!

Exmoor

Ridgeway nr. Wendover

Ridgeway nr. Wantage

Additionally, running made me address my food choices and so as a result of a long concentrated effort (which I still have to work) of making small sustainable changes to my lifestyle and diet, I am no longer obese or overweight.  However the weight loss is definitely secondary to the wonderful revelation of what my body can achieve when I have set my mind on it!  Anything is possible if you have decided to make it happen.

I would love to tell people my story and encourage them to do the same.  Mostly so that I can meet you at races and share the experience and have more victims a larger audience for my running banter.

I am excited to try to be the best I can be at this long distance running business – not just for a snappy time or a tick in a box – but because running really gives me peace and a sense of accomplishment.

Anyone can be a runner, I really believe that, so why not give it a try?

Andreas and I on a training run

I also love penguins so here is a penguin I met at London Zoo. Because. It’s my about page and there needed to be a penguin