Runner Profile: Dominic Bareham
Playing cricket as a twenty-something was actually the catalyst for me to start running seriously.
Coming off the cricket field feeling absolutely shattered after bowling ten overs and puffing like the Flying Dutchman made me realise that I needed to get fitter and running was the key to achieving this.
I have always enjoyed playing sport of one kind or another – I was in the cricket team at school and played football every weekend at university, but fitness was not a priority.
Not when it had to compete with the traditional student pastimes of beer and pizza anyway!
I certainly wouldn’t consider myself to have been remotely athletic at school either; I was always the last to be selected for the football or rugby team during games sessions.
The thought of having to complete a bleep test filled me with horror.
I was a bit of a “weekend warrior” to start with, running Saturdays and Sundays, usually from my house to the Spar shop in High Road East, along Colneis Road (a distance of a couple of miles) before stopping for a drink and then running home again.
The fitness lark was hard to begin with, especially running on my own on cold winter nights, but it did have the desired effect of enabling me to survive a game of cricket!
However, as time went by I started to enjoy it more and realised (thanks to a running app on my phone) that I was actually getting faster, so I started to incorporate some midweek runs into my training.
This routine of weekend runs and a midweek run continued probably for a decade, combined with cricket on summer weekends and would usually be about four miles in length.
Oddly, while the lockdowns imposed to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic caused many runners’ training to go into reverse, if anything I started running more often and for longer distances.
The fact that I was working from home certainly helped and afforded me the time to go running.
I started running 10Ks three or four times a week and then completed my first half marathon distance.
Having been well infected with the running bug, I decided to join the Felixstowe Road Runners in October 2022 and I’ve enjoyed every moment, especially the Tuesday night training and learning new and interesting routines and of course, the hill training!
I’d never run on a track before joining FRR, but I now go to the monthly Northgate sessions.
I’ve also started competing in more running events since joining FRR and have notched some achievements that I had never believed I’d be able to accomplish.
Achieving a 10k PB of 43 minutes at the Woodbridge 10K in 2023 was a particular highlight, while I managed a 98 minute half marathon at Stowmarket last year.
Taking part in the Kirton 5 was also an enjoyable experience and I managed a 34 minute time last year, which I never thought I would be able to manage for a five mile run.
This year, I achieved a 10 mile PB of 1 hour 14 minutes at the Felixstowe Coastal 10.
Parkruns have become a regular feature of my life as well and I particularly enjoyed an unexpected sub-20 time of 19 minutes 40 seconds at Felixstowe parkrun.
And I’ve even started doing cross country runs in the Suffolk Winter League; another activity that would have filled the teenage me with dread.
I attribute these to the training I’ve received at FRR and a certain amount of personal determination!
If there’s one thing I’ve learned since running is that you never know what you’re capable of until you try and I’m sure the younger, less fit version of me would have laughed at the thought of even completing a 5K!
My thanks to Bryan Wybrow for the nomination and I would like to nominate Sam Baxter for the next Runner Profile.
