Chapter 1
In June 2017 I was most definitely a coach potato. My life style was work at a desk for 9 hours a day, commute in the car for 2 hours a day, snack on rubbish throughout the day, come home and eat a big meal, drink wine (too much), watch TV and go to bed.
I was 60 but not clever enough to realise what this life style was leading to.
It would be great to claim that I made that life changing decision to change my life but actually it was more by chance. I had been raising money for Acorns Children’s Trust doing things like abseiling and fire walking and it was Acorns who asked me if I would run the London Marathon for them in 2018, I said of course without thinking about it.
I set out on my first walk and struggled to manage one mile, I needed help. With a friend’s help I set out to do couch to 5k by going to Parkrun in the Walsall Arboretum and I joined Aldridge Running Club.
In October I completed the Birmingham half marathon and between July 2018 and April 2019 I ran over 1,000 miles in all weathers.
In April 2018 I completed the London Marathon in 6 hours 16 minutes.
I hadn’t become a super athlete running fast times, I was a slow runner quick walker but I was out there doing it. After London I competed in numerous 10k races and ran the Great North Half Marathon and the Birmingham Half.
At 62 I was in the best place, both physically and mentally that I had been in for decades.
Chapter 2
After the Birmingham Half which had been running for two and a half hours in constant pouring rain I began to struggle for breath and over the next few weeks it got progressively worse but I put it down to a chest infection. It got that bad that I could hardly walk up the stairs and when my chest began to feel tight and I had pins and needles down my left arm, it was my wife who insisted that I went to the doctors. I continued to get worse and it was actually in the doctors surgery that the doctor told me that I was having a heart attack and I was rushed to hospital. I burst into tears, my life was about to end and I wouldn’t see my wife and 3 daughters again.
Chapter 3
I survived but after many tests and scans I was told that the state of my arteries wasn’t good and I would require surgery.
Quite a few people remarked that it was the running that had caused it, but it wasn’t it was the years of my unhealthy couch lifestyle, 2 cardiologists actually told me that the 18 months of running had probably saved my life.
In February 2019 I was admitted to hospital and had two stents fitted.
Chapter 4
2019 was a bad year, more mentally than physically because I thought that although I was alive my life had ended because I couldn’t run anymore.
I started going to Heart Care (Walsall) who started me on a rehabilitation course and I started back at Parkrun but mainly as a volunteer just to be involved in the running community. Gradually I started to improve.
Chapter 5
In a fit of stupidity I had entered the ballot for London 2020 but no one gets in through the ballot do they.
Guess what I did and in January 2019 I started a 17 week training plan to complete the 40th anniversary London Marathon.
Heart Care (Walsall) are helping me on this path with cross training and monitoring of my heart but in week 2 I have managed over 20 miles with a longest run of 6.1 miles. I can only walk as I have to constantly monitor my heart rate, my time will be slow but I truly hope to finish.

Kevin hosted a Curry Night for Heart Care and helped to raise money!