I went to the Athens Olympics in 2004 with my Dad. We were in the stadium the night Kelly Holmes won gold and the British men beat the Americans in the 4X100 relay.
I grew up in Warwick and I studied History of Art with some Italian thrown in (which I was rubbish at) at Warwick University before training to be a teacher. I taught in Coventry and then Tamworth before moving to Lea in 2019. My Great Grandad had a cottage in Buxton and my husband and I knew we wanted to live in this part of the world if we ever got the chance.
Anything seafood!
Neither if I’m honest. I don’t do tea, coffee, wine or anything with bubbles. I do enjoy a cocktail though!
Not especially, I enjoyed sports at school but had very little confidence both in terms of sport and more widely. I was quite studious and just kept my head down. I’m a life long Athletics/distance running fan though thanks to my parents who were both runners. Only recently have I started to have a bit more belief in myself and drive to improve.
I’ve always been an on and off runner. Teaching full time, then having two kids 12 months apart quite young and moving to a new area just made it hard to get into a rhythm. I’ve only started taking it seriously in the last 2 years so I’ve not had much time to build up PB’s of note. Half Marathon PB is currently 1hr51 and Marathon is 4hr11. I’m having a break from road marathons in 2023 but am hoping to break 4 hours in 2024.
Running is the only thing I do ‘for me’. I still love Art especially Italian sculpture. I’ve travelled in Italy a fair bit and spent 10 weeks in Venice as a student. I hope to return to Italy soon and take in some running events while I’m there.
Florence and Venice in The Renaissance.
Four people, alive or dead, you would invite to your dinner party?
My favourite queens – Freddie Mercury and Elizabeth 1. Plus my favourite comedians – David Jason and Susan Calman.
My Dad. Not only is he the most genuinely kind, big hearted person I know but he inspired me to run. He was a pretty serious club runner in his day and I’ve been cheering him on since I was a toddler. It was quite emotional as the proverbial baton was handed over at the London Marathon 2021. He was doing his last lap of London and I was finally taking on my first after 14 ballot rejections.
Rory Butler – an acoustic artist we discovered while taking our son to a festival at 4 months old!
The Outlander series and Cold Mountain, which I both knew as books before the screen. Our kids are named after two of the protagonists.
Wearing heavily patterned leggings at the Manchester Marathon – I gained about a stone just by putting them on and can’t bare to look at the pictures!
Paula Radcliffe. I idolised that woman growing up and I’d take all the advice she could give me.
It sounds cheesy and obvious but I’m proud of David and I for totally winging it at being parents and so far, managing to raise two pretty fab little people.
Happiest on Trail Tuesday – David and I go on a trail run every Tuesday and it’s always a lot of fun and a bit of escapism. Saddest when I get marred with self-doubt and feelings of not being good enough.
I went to Kenya on my own in 2012 for 6 weeks in an attempt to throw myself into a situation where I just had to put my big girl pants on and be brave. It was terrifying but I came away a better person and with a shed load of memories.
I am the kind of person that says things like it is, I don’t like things being sugar coated. So I’d say lack of honesty.
When we bought our house in Lea that we couldn’t really afford and I gave up a job I loved with no job to go to and no assurance that the house purchase would even go through. All at 29 and two very young kids. Thankfully the risk paid off.
It’s a really active club and I’m looking forward to getting involved more this year. I had great fun with Emma on our shortened version of the Hope Valley round – maybe some longer away day runs in groups. I’d love to do more trail running but have poor navigational skills and would like to go with others.
