Run England Sheffield launch

Andrew Moncrieff and Johnny Nelson

Sheffield has been chosen for the Run England pilot city and today it was easy to see why. Sheffield is a city that loves running! The local athletics clubs, Sheffield City Council and the Run England Activator, Emma Slater-Clayton are working very hard to recruit leaders and runners. With its world class sports facilities and the beautiful Peak District on its doorstep, Sheffield now has 11 Run England groups already set up.

The organisers invited several Run England members and Run England group leaders to the launch along with the Lord Mayor of Sheffield, Dr. Sylvia Dunkley and Johnny Nelson, a former professional boxer from Sheffield who was the World Champion for six years. He is now a pundit for Sky Television and works with young people to help them make the right choices in life. He was enthusiastic in his support of the project and said: “Even though I’ve been retired for five or six years now, I run. I’ve got to run. If people make it part of their lifestyle it makes you feel good, it makes you look good, it makes you live longer. To me running is everything – I can remember doing the Sheffield Marathon once, and I’m not a fast runner but I’m a decent runner, and this old couple ran past me and said ‘come on son, keep up with the old ones’ and I couldn’t believe it! Now obviously I’ve got a little bit older I can’t hammer the roads like I used to, due to the wear and tear on the body, but I go at least three days a week. Today I came to promote the Run England project on the City Hall steps, it’s a lovely sunny day and hopefully someone might look at me and think ‘this guy is 44 and he’s doing it, why shouldn’t I as well?’”

Johnny is a fabulous personality to have around and he was quite the crowd puller but, for me the two folk that really summed up what Run England is about were Andrew Moncrieff who is a Run England member and Shaun Rogers who is a Run England Leader. Both are an inspiration to all they come into contact with.

Andrew went to Activity Sheffield's cardiac rehap programme after having a triple heart bypass. After completing the block of circuit classes he was keen to get back to more exercise and joined the Run England group at Millhouses Park. He runs with the group every Thursday and also completes Endcliffe parkrun every Saturday. Andrew told me that the Run England make exercise 'bearable'! He isn't naturally drawn to exercise but knows the benefits he is getting from it and this motivates him to put his running shoes on and go out of the door. He says that once he's out there the support of the Run England team, the parkrun team and other runners reallv spur him on. I asked him if he has checked his runbritain handicap score which, by the way is 34.6 and has improved steadily since the system first picked him up on 13 November last year when he was on 36.0 for registering a 44:31 5k time at the parkrun. He told me that he will be checking it now and that he feels it will encourage him further but said that the biggest encouragement he gets is the gang of people who are always at the end of a race shouting "Go on Andrew!" He also made the point that he won't always be trying to make improvements to his own time. If he is running close to anyone who is struggling he picks them up and encourages them along to the finish, "That's as much fun for me - helping them to get to the end." His personal goal is to get his time to 37 minutes. "For me that is an honest time because it's seven and a half kilometres an hour and you can't set a treadmill at seven and a half and go for forty minutes without jogging it!"

Shaun Rogers is the founder and one of the group leaders for Team Manvers who meet on Tuesday and Thursday evenings at the Boathouse in Manvers. Shaun ran for approximately 12 years, competing in distances from 10k to the marathon, but just over two years ago he suffered a life-threatening cardiac arrhythmia when his heart suddenly stopped beating and on recovering he struggled to keep motivated and get back into running. "I used to run on my own and I couldn't get back into running. I decided to set Team Manvers up and it's gone mad. It gives me motivation and encouragement to run and it stops myself and my wife from worrying when I'm out that it will happen again." He made the point that it's important for eveyone to exercise whether they have a heart condition or not.

All in all it was a great day out and the sun shone too! The message came across loud and clear, Run England can help give you the support and encouragement you need to get started on your running journey. What are you waiting for? If you're still running alone sign up and reap the benefits!