Runner Profile: Stuart Ward
First of all, I would like to pass on my condolences to Collette’s family. She was someone who I didn’t know very well, as I joined the club not long after she stepped away from run leader duties to battle her illness, but the outpouring and messages showed she was a wonderful woman who gave an awful lot to the running community. It was fantastic to see the club remember her in an amazing way, and it is something that makes me proud to be a FRR!
EARLY YEARS
I spent very little of my early years running – I think about the only time I went running was the annual school fun run which most people wore fancy dress for – I distinctly remember sprinting past Darth Vader running down the hill towards the finish. Otherwise, the only time I would run was with my step dad, if he was training to get fit for an England indoor cricket squad. Most of my childhood was spent up at the indoor cricket centre on Henley Road, re-enacting the great 2005 Ashes team and earning some money umpiring! This culminated in representing England U-16s at the 2009 Indoor Cricket World Cup, and experiencing the traditional Aussie sledging for myself! Ironically, the worry the management team had about me was my fitness levels, which isn’t something they would be worried about now.
But, alas, the indoor cricket centre shut down when I was 18 and it was off to university for me, where I undertook little physical activity and enjoyed all the benefits of living away from home for the first time. This went on for about a year and a half at university, until I came home one Christmas at 18 stone and looked unrecognisable to my family!
This was a wake up call, and January saw me sign up to the gym for the first time ever. After nearly dying in a spin class, and managing about 5 minutes on a cross trainer, I persevered and by the time I left university, my weight had dropped significantly. I could also do 60 minutes non-stop on the cross-trainer. Which then led to……
PARKRUN
On one of my forays back home from university, I found that my family often attended this free running event in the park each Saturday – more commonly known as parkrun! So, on one (I’m going to guess cold!) February morning, I decided that I would join them. My aims were to make it around the park in one piece, not to walk up Christchurch Hill, and to not finish last. To my surprise, I completed all these with ease, and thought I would be back when I return from university for good. Being the competitive person that I am, my next aim was to beat my brother. Within 4 weeks of returning, I managed to beat him, and he vowed never to run again! We have taken the opposite paths now – he takes his cricket seriously, whereas I take running more seriously now.
I spent a couple of years running occasionally, mostly running at parkrun and maybe running once or twice a week. I got stuck in the 21 min time for parkrun for most of this time, and couldn’t seem to get much quicker. A work colleague suggested that I try a running club, so I went along to Rushmere Community Runners, which gave me the push I needed to: (a) run more and push myself and (b) enjoy running with others as I often ran by myself. I do often still like my own company when running, but I have come to appreciate running with other people, especially as I am not as shy and quiet as I used to be!
My main aim in my early days was to run a sub 20 minute 5k. After several near misses, including the infamous Martlesham 5k in the pouring rain and running most of the race with a shoelace undone, I finally achieved my aim at a cold, yet still, Felixstowe Parkrun and ran a scarcely unbelievable time, 19.18. At this point, I realised I had some ability and decided to train more seriously to see what I was capable of. To me, it seemed like the natural next progression would be to run a marathon, and I decided to enter Southampton Marathon, as that is where my fitness journey began. However, I had completely forgotten that the route was hilly and exposed in places to the wind! Covid and an injury setback meant however that I didn’t take to the start line until 2022!
INJURY SETBACK
In 2021, what seemed like an innocuous car accident (although looking back, hitting your head at 35 mph isn’t that innocuous) had a major impact on my life and my running, leaving me with concussion (which took about 3 months to heal from) and PTSD which still affects me to this day. Looking back, it makes you really appreciate how lucky we are that we get to run. I couldn’t run for 3 months, and every time I tried to get back to running, I would suffer from symptoms linked to the concussion. And then, when I made it back, I was around 3 minutes slower than before, which at the time was even more frustrating. However, a change in diet proceeded to usher in a golden period in my running, with a sub 18 minute 5k (whilst winning the race), a sub 39 minute 10k and a sub 80 minute half marathon in the winter months of 2022.
MARATHON NUMBER 1
Well, coming into April 2022, I felt like I was ready to hit the sub 3 hour marathon. Well, how wrong I was! A poor choice of fuelling strategy, a hilly 2-lap course and a windy day put paid to that goal! A slow canter to the finish line for 9 miles was not what I had in mind, but looking back it stood me in good stead for the future. My favourite moment of the weekend was seeing friends from the parkrun crew (or the picnic crew if you are a regular attendee at Ipswich Parkrun) really enjoying running some of the other distances that were available. Not long after this, I broke my 5th metatarsal playing cricket (reference to David Beckham 2002) and then fractured my foot not long after recovering from the first injury, which meant very little running for the rest of 2022 – only coming back in time for my two favourite races of the year – Scenic 7 (that medal) and Hadleigh 5 (the cakes/the hill). This however did lead in to a rather more successful 2023, with PBs set at Little Bromley 10k (sub 37) and a 17.35 5k PB at the Colchester Friday Night 5k in August, which I would recommend for anyone chasing a PB, but not if you like a relatively interesting course.
I did however, to my shock, win my 2nd (and last at this moment in time) race. The stage was set at a sweltering hot Orwell Challenge, thinking thank goodness I am only running the half and not the full marathon! Previous winner Ollie Watson (Kesgrave Parkrun Legend!) was my main rival, and when he did his usual haring off at the speed of light, I thought I’m not going to see him at any point – even if he thought that Alphaflys across the sand was a wise idea! I did however catch him up after 10 miles, and in the end I beat him by 3 and a half minutes despite going the wrong way towards the end! This was followed by an interview with the race team, but thankfully for the public this interview has never seen the light of day.
JOINING FRR
Come September 2023, I decided to join FRR, having had great races against quite a few members over the years, and knowing a lot of the runners through Ipswich Parkrun. It was also emotional seeing how the club responded to the tragic loss of Ben, someone who I always enjoyed running against over the years. I also wanted to challenge myself more, and have other runners from the club to run alongside during training that were of a similar ability to myself! It felt like a great decision straight away, and I got my first ever team trophy at Scenic 7, holding on to 3rd FRR after Geraint and Solly cruised past me with a mile to go.
Late 2023 and early 2024 saw running take more of a backseat. Balancing a full-time teaching role with a significant journey time, and dating someone new (and who actually wanted to see me) meant a lot less training than I would usually do. I still ran ok and managed 3 long-distance races in a month in February, from the cold, windswept Great Bentley course and a slower time than anticipated, to the highly enjoyable Tunbridge Wells half marathon (those hills made Suffolk look very flat in comparison) and the usual fun at Tarpley 10. However, come May, both the relationship and the job had ended and the only thing I had to do was throw myself into training. I think that being able to focus on something else for a while, something that I really enjoyed doing, was really important for my mental health! What followed was a series of PBs across 5k and 5 miles, with the added bonus of winning the team trophy at all 3 Friday 5s that I entered, alongside some of the fastest runners that represent the club. To be honest, at the time I felt like a bit of a fraud standing up there with them, but then I realised I had actually worked hard to get to that fitness level, and had come an awful long way from when I first started my fitness journey.
MORE RECENT RUNNING
The second half of 2024 saw me take on the FRR One Lap to Ultra, only deciding on the day to see how many laps I could do in the allotted time slot. I have to admit, I did really enjoy the eating side of the race, the laps not quite so much. Coming into the aid tent after 7 laps, finding out there was time to complete one more lap and thinking that there can’t be anyone else who has run 8 laps. Imagine my surprise to find that there were others on their 8th lap, and I spent my 8th lap keeping Haydn behind me who was on his 9th lap. Great achievement from Haydn to complete 9 laps! Having completed 37 miles, I decided that it was time to get that weight off my shoulders – running a sub 3 marathon. After running under 42 minutes for the first time at Scenic 7, I put my head down into a long training block (with only one race) to get ready for it! I managed to: (1) choose a flat course and (2) persuade my friends to come down and run the other distances that were on offer! After some solid training, managing an on-going glute injury and many tantrums, I made it in one piece to the start line, ready and with a far better fuelling strategy this time to achieve my goal.
I can definitely say that the marathon is split into 2 – the first 20 miles and the last 10k. For the first 20 miles, my pacing was on point, going through 20 miles in my target time of 2 hours 10 minutes. At this point, my brain had decided that I was easily going to get sub 3, and decided that I was to go no faster than 7 minute miling! This meant a relatively long procession to the finish, and no sign of any speed left in the legs until I could see the finish line. Suddenly, my brain was like, you can get under 2hrs 56 if you put a burst on now! So I did, and made it to the finish line in 2hrs 55mins and 29 seconds. My first reaction was to cry, but then I realised that the adoring (slight exaggeration) Welsh crowds did not want to see yet another Englishman crying, so I walked slowly across the finish line and took it all in. Thinking back to the difficulties of the last year, and how proud I was of actually putting the effort in and being rewarded for it. I was then reunited with my friends post race, who had their own delightful stories to tell. Holly had spent her race talking to a bike support marshal about us and FRR, Chris had spent the entire half catching people up as he had started behind me, and Liam finished 3rd in the 10k after the lead group had been sent the wrong way and ended up running the Newport ‘11k’. I think Emily was the only one who had a drama-free race!
Next Steps – what does the future hold?
Now that the marathon dust is settled, I have a number of goals that I wish to achieve. This is of course injury permitting, as I sit typing this with my foot up, suffering from suspected Morton’s Neuroma! The thought of running another marathon at this moment in time gives me the shivers, unless of course I am successful in getting in the London marathon. I would love to be able to run a sub 17 minute 5k, and a sub 36 minute 10k, which I feel is achievable and probably close to my ceiling in terms of ability. I look forward to more memories and laughs with the parkrun crew, and continuing to enjoy running for FRR and being a run leader at both FRR and RCR. Hopefully one day, I would love to be able to race alongside future mini me(s), although if they grow like me I will be the shortest of them!
Well done for those of you who have managed to read until the end – blame half term for that!
My nomination for the next runner profile is Felixstowe’s very own running vicar – Neil Coulson!
