Leave the Road and Run was set up in December 2020 as a project to help others get into trail running, find new routes near them and generally get out there adventuring.  The project was started by Luke, an avid runner based in Bristol, UK.

My Story

In 2019 I weighed over 18 stone (with my largest being 18 stone 11 pounds!), was a hopeless smoker, in zero control of my diet and a big fan of drinking sessions.

In June 2019 my partner and I had joined a gym and, to give myself a goal to work towards, I started the NHS Couch to 5k programme.

I had never, in a million years, thought I'd enjoy running; I always thought it to be a boring, painful sport with few upsides, preferring a bit of cycling instead.

However as I got further in to the programme and was able to run for longer stretches, I started to fall head over heels in love with it.  There was a freedom, a peace and a chance to reset that came with going out for a nice jog.

By September 2019 I'd completed the programme and was able to run 5k; from there it was like jumping off a cliff.  I kept running at least 3 times a week, hitting 10k in November, doing my first half marathon in December, then my first full marathon September 2020.

At this point I'd given up smoking, was running consistently, and my weight chart did this:

Whilst I started to look like this:

As for trail running; 2020 was the year where I found just how much I enjoyed long adventure runs on the weekends.  My main motivation for continuing to run is to get out and explore some fresh woodlands, muddy tracks or undulating cliffs when Sunday rolls around.

Now it's August 2023, I weight 13 stone (having lost 5 stone 11 pounds!), run an average of 70 km a week & have completed 22 marathons and 15 ultra marathons, with my longest single event being 104 km.

I am now the proud father of 2 wonderful children and couldn't be happier that I have oodles of energy to keep up with them as they gets older.

Attributions

Favicon & header icon supplied by Lorc under Creative Commons 3.0 via game-icons.net