My running story
My personal running journey started at school when I regularly ran cross country and track. As a teenager I lost interest in running and had 10+ years off, enjoying drinking and partying instead (no regrets)!
I rediscovered my love for running in my twenties during a year living in London. I ran in Hyde Park to get a dose of the nature and green space I was missing in city life.
When I moved back to Kent I discovered parkrun, and it was here that I really started to feel part of a running community. I then joined Dartford Road Runners, began training, racing, making friends and becoming well and truly hooked on running.
I’ve always enjoyed strength training and I left my gym in Dartford to join CrossFit Tonbridge in 2016. I found that running and CrossFit complimented each other perfectly and kept me injury free.
I have been running competitively for 8 years in events from 5k up to marathon distance. Having run with Dartford Road Runners for many years, I am now a member of Tonbridge AC and train regularly there.
Representing Kent at inter-counties Essex 20 mile road race in March 2019
QUALIFICATIONS
UKA Coach in Running Fitness
UKA Endurance - Event Group (in progress)
Emergency First Aid
Safeguarding Adults & Children
Mental Health First Aid
Counselling Skills training
Motivational Interviewing
Why coaching?
Canterbury 10 mile road race - January 2020
As someone working in the Social Work/charity sector with vulnerable people, I’ve always felt passionate about seeing people develop and grow.
I wanted to share the mental and physical health benefits with young people I was supporting at work at the time, many of whom were dealing with complex mental health, substance misuse issues and involvement in the criminal justice system. I started out by motivating some of these young people to start exercising more, so I trained as a UKA Run Leader in 2015 to allow me to safely take small groups of young people running around Tonbridge, eventually persuading a few of them to try parkrun.
I also began helping a few CrossFit friends with plans to help them train for obstacle course events (pre-Hyrox!) which included more running than they had previously done, and I wanted to incorporate interval training to stop them getting bored. As more people became interested, I decided I wanted to start a small group locally and in 2019, just before lockdown, Scrambled Leggs began.
I gained my UKA Coach in Running Fitness in 2019 and now coach groups and one-to-one clients evenings and weekends alongside my day job. I organised running sessions for Sweaty Betty in Tunbridge Wells in 2019 and 2023, lead a monthly social 5k from Fuggles Beer Cafe in Tonbridge, and have also been involved in coaching at several affiliated clubs including, Dartford Road Runners, Paddock Wood AC and Tonbridge AC.
Cell Workout
Earlier this year, I collaborated with LJ Flanders, author of ‘Cell Workout’ book and brand through my work within HM Prisons to create a workout to be featured in the March edition of Inside Time (prison newspaper) along with an article I wrote
Cell Workout is a bodyweight training guide devised from a prison cell but accessible to anyone who wants to get fit in a small space using no specialist equipment.