By July 2024, I had reached the weight-loss target I had set myself the previous summer. I had marked the first anniversary with my first tattoo. Going to the gym was part of my everyday life, and I was doing things I would have struggled to imagine a year earlier.
There was also a fairly substantial item still waiting on the list.
On 8 September, I was supposed to run from Newcastle to South Shields. A half marathon. The Great North Run.
When I signed up, completing it by any means had seemed ambitious enough. Walking was an entirely acceptable option. By the summer of 2024, I wanted to find out how much of it I could actually run.
To explain why that mattered, I need to rewind a little.
A year to get ready
Friends on JaguarForum had been following my weight loss from the beginning. Somewhere among the encouragement came jokes about the London Marathon, followed by a suggestion that the Great North Run might be a little closer to home.
I started checking when the charity places would open. On 8 September 2023, when the link went live, I filled in the form and paid for a place with Bowel Cancer UK.
Exactly twelve months to prepare.
At that point, I had only just started going to the gym. Walking a mile could leave me breathless. I had committed to covering 13.1 miles, surrounded by thousands of other people, and I had very little idea of what that would feel like. But I had Ken helping me work out what to do, and Matty helping me put the work in at the gym. There was time to learn.
First, walk five kilometres
Ken’s training plan had something scheduled throughout the week. Saturday’s instruction was to do the five-kilometre walk/run at parkrun, accompanied by his familiar encouragement to “get over it”.
So, on 14 October 2023, I went to Stanley Park in Blackpool.
I walked my first parkrun in 57 minutes and 39 seconds. Bill, one of the tail walkers, kept me company. Having someone to chat to made that first outing much less intimidating. When I returned the following week, Lesley (who just happened to be Bill's partner) was there to do the same.
Those friendly faces mattered. It was easier to go back to somewhere I had been made welcome. They would also pop up in the holding area ahead of the Great North Run!
The next week, I took two minutes and 28 seconds off my time. A week later, another minute and 31 seconds. I was only competing with myself, but now I had something to measure and something to aim for.
Progress came with interruptions. A troublesome calf meant one outing ended half-way through after a single lap. Calf issues were becoming a "bit of a thing" and my mate Ken had been going on at me to get my gait checked out.
Gait analysis is the systematic study of human walking or running mechanics using observation, video recording, or specialized tracking equipment. It evaluates how your feet, ankles, knees, hips, and spine move through the gait cycle - from the moment your foot hits the ground to when it pushes off again.
So off I went to Run Preston to have my gait analysed, problem identified, new shoes purchased and a return to Park Run in December helped me get going again. By the end of the year, I had brought my time down to 41 minutes and 25 seconds, mixing running with walking.
Then, on New Year’s Day, my knee became painful in the final kilometre. I finished, but running had to wait while I recovered. The diagnosis was patellar tendonitis.
My GP referred me for some physiotherapy and within a few weeks I was undergoing treatment. This included manipulation, infra-red and TENS. The gym work continued. The calendar continued moving towards September.
After four weekly sessions my "runners knee" was fixed and normal service could resume. Rather than dive straight back into Park Run, I decided to hold off. We were going into Spring and there was still plenty of rain (and snow and ice) about and the last thing I needed was to slip and cause another injury.
The first time I ran all of it
I returned to parkrun on 4 May 2024, after four months away. I was lighter and fitter than when I had last stood at the clock tower. Even so, I had set out that morning hoping to improve on my old time by about a minute and a half. I finished in 34 minutes and 27 seconds. Six minutes and 58 seconds off my previous best. More significantly, I had run an entire five kilometres for the first time in my life.
There were now just four months left until the Great North Run. May the fourth be with me.
8 June 2024 (left) and 14 October 2023 (right)
On 11 May, I took another two minutes and 47 seconds off. On 25 May, I finished in 30 minutes and 58 seconds. The next target was obvious: get below thirty minutes.
That happened on 8 June, with an official time of 29 minutes and 38 seconds. A week later it was 28:56. On 13 July, I brought it down again to 28:50.
The route was becoming familiar: the clock tower, the woods, the lake, the final stretch towards the pavilion. So were the people. I had another photograph taken with Bill, months after he had walked alongside me at the back of the field.
29 June saw me joined at Park Run by Matty. It was good to be running with him for the first time. There were now just ten weeks remaining before we were due to take on the Great North Run - 21km (13.1 miles) - together.
I had also learned that a disappointing Saturday didn’t tell the whole story. On 6 July, I stopped after the first lap. The following week, I returned and ran that new personal best.
That was useful experience to carry into a much longer run.
Under the Blackpool Illuminations
On Wednesday 28 August 2024, Matty and I joined around 4,000 people for the Blackpool Night Run, supporting Brian House Children’s Hospice. Seven and a half kilometres along the promenade, under the Illuminations. No traffic to navigate, just a lot of runners trying to find a bit of space.
We started together at a steady pace. At the halfway point, we turned and headed back towards the Tower, into a breeze that made itself considerably more noticeable in that direction. At five kilometres, Matty decided to pick up his pace and disappeared ahead.
I kept going, increased my own pace a little and crossed the finish line to the sound of the crowd. It was my longest running event so far, and my first sporting medal.
At primary school, we used to play the sports-day Super 8 film backwards so I would finish first. We really did do that. Now I had an actual medal, earned in the correct direction.
Having Matty there made it particularly special. He had been alongside me through nearly a year of learning how to train. In eleven days, he would be on the start line with me again.
Why Bowel Cancer UK
The choice of charity was personal.
In November 2017, my dad was diagnosed with bowel cancer. He received treatment at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary within four weeks of diagnosis and made a full recovery.
That experience was the reason I chose to run for Bowel Cancer UK.
When I signed up, the fundraising commitment was £375. I set myself a target of £1,000. Thanks to the generosity of the people supporting me, the total grew to an incredible £2709.40, including Gift Aid.
Friends, family and the communities I belonged to had followed the journey, encouraged me and donated. A challenge that began with my own fitness had become an opportunity to do something for a cause close to our family.
Newcastle, 8 September 2024
Park Run on 31 August was just 28 seconds off my personal best. This close to the big event I didn't want to push too hard and risk an injury. The week leading up to the Great North Run was like most other weeks over the past 12 months - training in the gym! The run training was over.
I had trained. I had run park runs, the Night Run, some longer road runs and plenty of treadmill sessions. I had never run a full half marathon.
I spent some time at my mum and dad's house on the Friday along with my brother and family friends Mike and Diane. We had lunch in the back garden before they waved me off. I was spending the weekend in Whitley Bay. A chance to relax ahead of the run.
Ken, who was running with us (myself and Matty) lived nearby in South Shields, so there was time to meet for dinner on Friday, then cake and a drink on Saturday. By Sunday morning, I was quietly nervous. I got changed in my running kit and walked to the nearby Metro station. 8am on a Sunday morning and the train was already crammed when it arrived.
So standing room only, the Metro took me to Haymarket where I met Matty and Ken. The three of us were finally there together. Ken had secured a place after time on the waiting list; Matty had committed to taking on the challenge with me.
In the rain and fog, I also found Bill and Lesley from Blackpool parkrun. Amongst 60,000 people seeing the people who had kept me company when I was walking those first five kilometres felt especially fitting. Then came the long approach to the start line. I described it afterwards as the climb at the beginning of a rollercoaster: plenty of time to think about what you have agreed to, with the road ahead getting closer all the while.
At 12:27:37, we crossed the line.
Ken on one side, Matty on the other. The two people who had done so much to help me get there.
Thirteen miles, and a very good friend
After a couple of miles, Ken told Matty and me to go ahead. I hadn’t particularly wanted to leave him, but after checking he was all right, we picked up our pace.
Matty stayed with me.
There was the Tyne Bridge, the climbing road beyond it and a crowded field all the way. There were bands, music and spectators offering sweets, biscuits and ice pops. People stood out in the weather and shouted our names. The first time someone called “Come on, Matty!”, he wondered how they knew who he was. It was surprisingly easy to forget that our names were printed across our running bibs.
At one point, we were running to “Grease Lightning”. With everything going on, I managed to miss the Bowel Cancer UK cheering point entirely. I had been thinking in kilometres; their position was around mile eight.
By about nine miles, Matty suggested we push a little harder for the remaining distance, despite having his own discomfort in his calves and ankles. There was a brief stop at the toilets, the final hill, and then the descent towards the sea.
That last mile along the seafront was something else. So many runners, so many people watching, and the finish getting closer. I spotted Simon, a friend from the Jaguar community, and managed a high-five as I passed.
Then we turned towards the finish.
Matty was still beside me when we crossed it.
Two hours, 22 minutes and 26 seconds. Identical finish times.
A year earlier, I had hoped I could get to the end somehow. Now I had completed my first half marathon, more than seven and a half minutes inside the private target I had set myself.
Ken finished with a Great North Run personal best of his own: 2:47:09.
Afterwards came water, medals, bags, photographs and the discovery that the finish line wasn’t the end of the walking. I met the Jaguar friends who had braved the weather, caught the Bowel Cancer UK team as they were packing up, and eventually went for pizza with a Jaguar friend.
My legs had plenty to say about the journey back to Whitley Bay.
The medal and my running number would end up framed on the lounge wall. Matty had gone well beyond the training sessions I had originally signed up for. We had shared a day I would never forget.
A first visit to Lanzarote
One week on, from the Great North Run, and now capable of walking again, it was time to go on holiday. Destination: Playa Blanca, Lanzarote. My parents and brother had holidayed there for twenty years, but this was to be my first time.
I may have been on holiday but the routine I had built over the previous 12 months came on holiday too, even down to packing supplements, shakes and protein snacks.
I had chosen H10 Rubicón Palace for this holiday and it did not disappoint.
Flying out of Manchester at 6.30am and arriving at Arrecife at 10.30am, I was at the hotel, checked-in and around the pool by 1pm
This holiday was a chance to totally unwind after all the hard work that went into preparing for the Great North Run. Maintaining my training routine in the mornings after breakfast, followed by walks along the Playa Blanca promenade (Paseo Marítimo) towards the main town and back again. Then settling down for lazy afternoons around the pool in the sun.
My training log records rowing on 17 September, followed by push, pull and leg sessions over the days that followed. By then, basic hotel requirements included a decent gym. I had done it in Turkey earlier in the year. Now I was doing it in Lanzarote.
This holiday was also the chance to explore my new-found body confidence. No longer embarrassed to take off my shirt in public or walk around in just shorts, I was proud of what I had achieved, from where I had started, and I no longer felt the need to cover up. I was more lean than I could ever have imagined. My stomach was flatter, muscles were growing and I was discovering what quads look like. I no longer felt out of place on a sun lounger wearing shorts.
It was also my opportunity to take a break from the relative strictness of the diet I had adhered to. During my time in Turkey I had packed all my nutrition for the 5 days and having sampled the hotel food on the first night I was quite glad I had, But this time, in Lanzarote, was going to be different, In April 2024 I was still chasing that final weight-loss figure.
Five months on I had been successfully maintaining my weight. I also had my shiny Great North Run medal. But now the food was to be my reward! Generally healthy breakfasts, protein shakes for lunch and protein-rich main courses for dinner. Followed by dessert.
Lots of desserts! 🍰🤣
They were magnificent. One plate of various desserts was simply not enough. Being half-board meant I was able to make the most of the buffet restaurants for dinner and breakfast. Mornings were sensible. Evenings were the highlight of my seven night escape to the sun.
The work carried on
The Great North Run had given me a date to work towards, but it had never been the only reason I trained. I still wanted to build strength, muscle and confidence. I had discovered my inner drive.
Matty moved to JD Gyms in Preston. Thornton-Cleveleys remained my home gym, but I travelled to Preston for our training sessions. By 6 March 2025, eighteen months into gym life, I had recorded visiting a gym on 462 of the preceding 544 days. Some visits were for weight training, others for cardio or lighter work. The gym had become a place I wanted to be. From being a place I was terrified to walk into to being my true happy place.
My training log from March has sessions with Matty in Preston alongside solo sessions at Thornton-Cleveleys. On 8 March, it also records my first parkrun since the Great North Run.
There were still reasons to put the running shoes on. 2025 was supposed to be a year where I completed a few runs. I had planned to run a few 10K during the Spring and Summer in the lead up to the Great North Run, with the Great Manchester Run 10K first up.
Manchester, 18 May 2025
In May, I ran the Great Manchester Run 10K.
This time, I travelled there by train on my own. No Ken or Matty beside me on the start line. I was very nervous. I felt un-prepared. I hadn't run enough in the lead-up. Some how, during the application process, I had put myself in the ambitious first wave behind the elites. Once we were off, though, it didn’t take long for the plan to change.
After the first kilometre, my left calf decided to register a complaint. I was limping. I had to walk for a while, unsure whether I would be able to finish at all.
For the rest of the course, I alternated between running and walking.
Every so often, a stranger at the side of the route would call out:
“Come on, Mark, you can do it!”
I had heard that encouragement at the Great North Run with Matty alongside me. In Manchester, on my own and struggling, those voices were especially welcome.
The final five hundred metres were lined with thousands of people. I managed to dig deep and run across the finish line.
My brother was watching on television. He saw me finish and messaged to say I looked “in pain”.
I was. But I had completed the ten kilometres, in 1 hour 8 minutes and 56 seconds. That's a pace of 6:54/km. The 21KM Great North Run eight months earlier I ran at 6:47/km. Considering I limped, hobbled and walked for quite a few of those 10 kilometers I was pretty pleased with that result, and I got another nice shiny medal. I even got to meet A J Bell himself! 🤣
It hadn’t been the run I had hoped for when I stood in that first wave. By the time I crossed the line, finishing it meant a great deal.
I had also raised another £701.25 for Bowel Cancer UK.
Twenty-two months with Matty
By July 2025, I had been training with Matty for twenty-two months.
He had met me when I was new to the gym and nervous about almost everything in it. Since then, we had worked through countless sessions, celebrated progress and crossed the Great North Run finish line together. Over that time we had trained at JD Gyms Thornton-Cleveleys, Ribby Hall Health Club and JD Gyms Preston.
Eventually, the travel to Preston became too much of a demand on my time. I made the difficult decision to change coaches and begin working with Carol West at Thornton-Cleveleys.
However telling Matty was going to be even harder! I'd go into training with the idea that I would mention it, and then would chicken out, but eventually, after about two weeks, I managed to do it. By that point we had just one final training session the next day.
Our final training session was sad. We reminisced about things we'd done, how things had changed. I still remember the end of that session when it became time to say a final goodbye and walk down the stairs of Preston JD to the locker room. I remain grateful for what Matty helped me achieve. For helping me find confidence in myself and for helping me fall in love with gym and fitness. He really did help to change my life!
Carol would bring a new structure to my training and nutrition. That deserves its own chapter.
This second year had taken me from preparing for a half marathon to having the medal on my wall. It had included more personal bests, a first visit to Lanzarote, another running event in Manchester and the everyday work in between.
I had plenty left to do. In July 2025, it was time to find out what the next stage could look like.