A perpetually injured, 40-something Dad with no notable running history or achievements, walks into a bar….

In 2019, I was an unfit, 40-something Dad, working in the wine industry with a growing alcohol issue as a result, and a growing waistline to match. It is safe to say that running, any more than I absolutely had to in any given circumstance, was not one of my priorities.

As a kid, I was particularly skinny. I could eat anything, and not put on weight. My smoking as a teenager and into my twenties, as well as my lifestyle as a some-time DJ in Canberra’s then lively dance music scene, did its utmost to ensure my metabolism was always running at top speed.

By the time I hit my thirties I was married and a non-smoker, and my weekend party life had given way to a slower, more homely life – almost hermit-like by comparison. I was drinking a lot, and eating whatever I wanted. I had a gig in 2012, some 6 or 7 years since my last one, which attracted a bunch of old friends – one of whom exclaimed “You got fat!” at my new (to them, at least) figure.

So that winter I started my first health kick. It lasted about three weeks.

By 2016 I had left the corporate life for the wine industry and found myself working and living on a vineyard, with lots of access to free booze and zero thought of the consequences, either on my physical or mental health. At some point, I realised I had gained about 30 kilograms above the weight I was in my early twenties (neither weight really ‘healthy’, if for completely opposite reasons), and I needed to do something about it.

I started a couch to 5k program in October 2019 and have been running, in some form or another, or injured and thinking about getting back to running pretty much ever since. I’m still overweight, the consequence of a few timely injuries setting everything back just enough to never actually get ahead, but I’m the fittest I’ve been since I finished high school, almost thirty years ago now.

This blog is my journey through 2024 and the trials and tribulations therein. I’ve set myself some big goals for this year, with some big races to go with them and there’s a lot of ground (figuratively and literally) to go over here. Most of what I will likely post will be a training log, occasionally I suspect I’ll venture into other subjects like mental health, diet, weight loss and the odd tidbit into my personal life.

As much as I want people to read this blog, and hopefully get something out of it, I acknowledge that really I’m writing this for me. I need this outlet and I miss writing and doing this seems to make the most sense. So please reach out to me if you get something from this, if nothing else I’ll get a kick out of knowing there’s an audience more than just one.