My next challenge was the Cambridge Half Marathon in March. I’d run lots of half marathons in the past, including the Cambridge half, and my previous PB was 1:34:30 in March 2021 (a lifetime ago …). I knew that I could get round a half fairly quickly, if I was in shape, but I had no idea if I was in the same kind of shape that I’d been in five years earlier. Back then, I was running at about 105kg, so I was carrying around 7 extra kilos (yes … still 112kg … ).

On the morning of the race, the conditions seemed pretty good, and I knew that I was going to be well supported from the sidelines (see support team below!). My strategy, which I know you’re not really supposed to do, was basically: go out hard, see if you can stick at it, backing the fact that I had been running lots of longer distances as part of the marathon training.

Fortunately, it seemed to work. I got round in a new (official) PB of 1:32:08. One terrible blister was the low point (stone in my shoe early in the race), and the highs were the looks of surprise on the faces of people I knew as I zipped along. I enjoyed the fact that there weren’t many people as big as me running nearby, except for one 20 year old, who blasted out Stormzy from his earphones the whole way round. We shared a nod of mutual satisfaction on the finish line.

Mission accomplished. Onto the next challenge!