Joe

Technology Solutions Lead

Current sporting discipline

Running / Gym work - Next big event is the Centurion Running 50 mile grand slam - 4 x 50 mile events in 2026

How and why did you get into this sport?

I got into running in 2017 because a friend of mine lost his girlfriend to cancer and he pledged to run 500 race miles in a year in her memory. I ended up joining him for 4 half marathons that year and fell in love with running. I joined a running club in June 2017 and have never looked back meeting many friends and even my now wife through the running club.

What has been your biggest recent battle with training?

My current battle is finding time to run, gym and play whilst my work is very busy. I have to do a lot of U.S. hours and therefore often evenings are spent on calls. I have to travel a fair amount with work and although I stay in hotels with gyms, it is hard to keep in a good rhythm whilst travelling.

From a self discipline point of view, I have always struggled to maintain a good nutrition schedule and I know that I eat and drink the wrong things including drinking too much alcohol (maybe a byproduct of having a home bar). I am on a journey to get better with this but it is an area that I will always struggle with especially whilst travelling to places like the U.S.

If we were to open your diary from the last week, what would it say?

At the weekend I completed my 5th 50km and ran in a PB time of 6hrs13min across the rolling hills of the South Downs Way. Centurion running know how to put on a great run and this race really lived up to those expectations. I had a rocky start after realising at 10pm the night before that I may have left my race backpack (required for ultra runs) in the U.S. on the last trip, having to use my backup bag which I am not a big fan of. At the start line I was very stressed about having to use this bag so I made the decision to go against everyone’s better judgement of not trying something new on race day and bought a new bag and transferred all my stuff across. This is the best decision I could have made as it made all the stress of having the wrong bag disappear and allow me to enjoy the race. A great example of how these silly distances play mind games with you even before you start.

Although a big group of us were at the start line together, I made the decision to run on my own both for my head space and my current fitness levels. I bumped into a couple of friends a few times at the aid stations but continued on even though only a couple of minutes in front of them for much of the race. I chatted to plenty of people and complained about the heat and the hills plenty of times but had a great day out on the trails. I did think it was very mean of the organisers to put a nearly 600ft climb of Butser hill at mile 29 but the views were incredible.

My advice to anyone “running” these crazy distances is that unless you are an elite runner… there is a lot of walking involved and as long as you walk with a purpose, you can still get a good time. I finished 139th out of 305 runners and looking at my garmin it says that I ran for 3hrs7, walked 2hrs59 and was “idle” for 7 minutes.

For the rest of this year, I want to focus on speed, strength and bringing down my weight a bit more before I take on the epic challenge of the Centurion 50 mile grand slam in 2026, running in each of their four 50 mile events!