From 200 yards
to the wall.
Artist, former art teacher, runner and cyclist. Someone who learned the hard way that you can't fight your way to being well.
In 2007 I was 28, and I wasn't in a good place. I was struggling with my weight and with binge eating, and both my physical and mental health were suffering. A short walk could leave me out of breath.
When I left teaching, I withdrew. For four years I kept to myself, and the world got smaller.
What brought me back was the outdoors. Getting outside and moving, at first just walking, and noticing how it made me feel. The rush of endorphins. Energy I hadn't felt in years. A sense of being alive in my own body again. That feeling is what kept me going: walking became running, then yoga and meditation, and a growing curiosity about wellbeing as a whole, not just fitness.
For a long time I did it the hard way. Ten years of "no pain, no gain", with the injuries to prove it. I was fit, but I was running on empty. I'd push and push, with a one-track mind, a bit like a robot. My body was there, but my head wasn't, and the people around me paid for it too. Relationships broke down along the way.
What I've learned since is simpler: nourish the body and the mind, don't fight them.
- 2007A short walk, out of breath.Leaving teaching, and four years keeping myself to myself.
- ThenWalking became running.Getting outside again, and finding the joy of moving. Then yoga, meditation, and a wider interest in how body and mind work together.
- 25+Marathons, and counting.London, New York, Dublin and Belfast among them. Plus ultras, mountain events, road cycling and duathlons.
- 2016You Lifestyle Balance.Writing about balance over burnout, and why exercise isn't war. The Liverpool half marathon.
- 2018The Great Wall of China.A charity trek, written up day by day. Training for Dublin.
- StudyThe mind behind the habits.Training in Neuro-Linguistic Programming led me to look harder at my own thought patterns around food: emotional eating, and my past with obesity. Understanding why I ate the way I did mattered as much as anything I did in running shoes.
- 2026Life is always now.Ten years on, I'm a happier person with a happier, more realistic mind. Married, with a family, and children have brought their own challenges. Picking the journal back up, with more on the mind than ever.
The adventures and the setbacks.
This journal is where I share both. If something here helps you take your own first 200 yards, it's done its job.