[Post edited 28 Jun 2024 16:39]

The Biggest Challenge of my Life by MarkTWTD 23 Jul 2024 10:12
Hi TWTDer's... it’s your resident hamster here. Well, the person who tries to keep the wheels of TWTD turning.

As some of you may know, from some of my recent posts, I am currently preparing to take part in the Great North Run on Sunday 8 September - it’s the World’s largest half marathon - a mere 21km/13.1 miles. I have never done anything like this before and I'm certainly not getting any younger.

So why am I doing this?

It all started on Thursday 20 July 2023 - Day Zero - when I awoke with the realisation that I had to do things differently. I had to make some fundamental changes to my lifestyle. I had to reboot myself and learn a new way of life.

Earlier in the year I had a random meeting with someone called Ken at a Jaguar car event I had organised. Over dinner I discovered that he supported Ipswich Town and that he was a member of TWTD, and that was how I first met NewcyBlue. We became good friends and it was during many long WhatsApp chats that his love for everything fitness-related came to light and so on the 20 July, when I was looking for advice and support, there was only one person I was going to turn to. I had placed an order for some Huel products - meal replacement shakes - but he recommended Protein Works. So I placed a second order with them. It just happened that the Protein Works products arrived the very next day (Huel didn't turn up until 2 days later) and so at lunchtime on Friday 21 July 2023 my "Weight Loss Challenge" started.

It wasn’t long before Ken suggested I should join a gym. My weight loss was off to a good start but a gym would allow me to achieve so much more. I’d never stepped foot inside a gym and so the idea was pretty terrifying so I gave myself a bit of time to get my head around the idea and to lose a bit more weight. Beginning of September, six weeks after starting the diet, I had lost 1.5st (9.5kg) and so I took the plunge and joined my local JD Gym, signed up a personal trainer and I’ve never looked back. One of the best decisions I have taken in my entire life.

https://gnr2024.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/MarkTWTD-ParkRun.jpg

The same week I joined the gym I decided to add another challenge to my growing list of goals - the Great North Run. I’d floated the idea with Ken a few weeks earlier by asking the question “Would it be crazy for me to think about running a half marathon? Would the GNR next year be too soon for me?”. Only one way to find out and so on 8 September 2023 I signed up to run for Bowel Cancer UK. I had exactly 12 months to prepare for what will be one of the biggest challenges of my life.

So where was my starting point in July 2023?

I was 55 years old, 5ft 7in, weighing 17st 4lb (109.9kg) with a 46in waist.

I had set myself an ambitious target of losing nearly 6.5st (40kg) by the end of April - just 9 months. It was suggested that I should perhaps reconsider that goal and push the timeframe out a bit further but my weight loss was consistent at around 1st (6.5kg) per month for the first few months. It slowed down a little bit in December and January due to a couple of injuries I had picked up in training, but it was still going in the right direction.

Back in September I started out training twice a week in the gym with additional cardio sessions on the remaining days. I joined ParkRun last October and slowly built up the running side of things. In November I bumped training with Matty my personal trainer up to three days a week (PPL - Push Pull Legs) and then by February (as I turned 56 years old) I stepped it up even more to four training sessions per week, now including body building/strength training, visiting the gym six days a week, usually twice a day, to also include treadmill and rowing machine cardio sessions.

https://gnr2024.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/MarkTWTD-1YearMontage-800px.jpg

I reached my target weight - (11st) 69.9kg - in the first week of April and have been maintaining my weight at around 70kg ever since. My waist line has shrunk to an unbelievable 30in.

Ken has been amazingly supportive and a massive part of my “journey”, as has my personal trainer Matty. The Great North Run is not the end of my journey, it’s just one stop along the way. I have so much more to achieve.

Last weekend was the first anniversary of starting this adventure and I managed to tick off another goal. I have always wanted a tattoo but never felt confident enough to think I could “pull it off”. Back in December I booked an appointment at a local tattoo studio for Saturday 20 July - 1 year to the day that this all started - to get my first tattoo. It took 3hrs 45mins, and I absolutely love the result. There was already the plan to have another in the future and that will hopefully follow early next year once I’ve put in a whole load more work at the gym!

So why am I running in aid of Bowel Cancer UK?

Back in November 2017 my dad was diagnosed with Bowel Cancer. He received amazing treatment at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary under the care of Thomas Raymond within four weeks of diagnosis and has made a full recovery. Nearly seven years on he remains cancer free.

https://gnr2024.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/bowel-cancer-uk-500px-white.jpg

Bowel cancer is the UK’s second biggest cancer killer with over 16,000 people dying annually of a disease that is preventable, treatable and curable. I’m determined to help Bowel Cancer UK to change that. The money I raise will help to provide support and information to patients and their families, enable them to fund and support research into bowel cancer and to campaign for early diagnosis and the best treatment and care for all.

Thank you for taking the time to read my story. If you would like to, and are able to, it would be amazing if you could support the cause at the heart of all this - Bowel Cancer UK. They really do help to save peoples lives

https://www.justgiving.com/page/mark-brierley-great-north-run-2024

You can also read more about what I’ve been up to over the past 12 months at my website - https://www.gnr2024.co.uk

https://gnr2024.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/logo-400.png