This will get your day off to a great start and thanks for sharing this with us Pete - inspirational. If you have a story of what parkrun means to you then please get in touch with us at nonsuchoffice@parkrun. Pete has certainly set the bar pretty high with this first story. We hope this will become a regular posting depending upon the feedback we are also going to be talking to people on a Saturday morning to get their stories. the photos, if you hadnt worked it out, are before and after over the space of 10 months! parkrun Profile Name: Peter Gossington Occupation: Operations Director Home town: London Status: Married (Gorgeous Mrs G) : Children 5 (all expensive!!) parklrun: Nonsuch parkrun Cheam Surrey Why did you start running parkrun? Like most middle aged men I found myself hurtling towards 50, with all the ‘very’ normal responsibilities of long working hours and busy family life. Having retired from playing rugby some years ago I simply resigned myself to watching sport while developing a successful ‘Dad Taxi’ business. Weight and Type 2 diabetes silently crept up on and soon found myself tipping scales at 20 stone plus. It was not unusual for me to watch Mrs G disappearing out the door every Saturday morning to meet friends for a run, and more confusing why was she looking forward to it? ‘What was I missing?’ Getting Started At the start of 2014 I decided to tag along with Mrs G to the local parkrun, where immediately I was introduced to a really friendly group of people who ‘Knew rather a lot about me!’ Thankfully, and to my surprise a chap named Derick Wilkie unhesitatingly stepped forward and offered to run with me no matter how long it took to offer some words of comfort around the 5K course, which unknown to me at the time, a meeting which ultimately was going to alter my life…… Running life As the months ticked past the encouragement of my new best mate Derick, the gorgeous Mr G and the rest of the gang at parkrun never waned. Derick offered to run with me week in week out without question or thought of his own run time, which when you think about it was pretty selfless and magnanimous. Soon with the reassurance of my new group of friends, Derick kindly arranged a few other training runs on Sunday and I found myself hurtling towards my first 10 mile race, which he and I completed in a respectable 1 hour 42 minutes. With the support of my friends at parkrun I continued to progress and enter numerous events and currently working towards two half Marathons and numerous 10 mile races. I have also managed to improve my personal best PR time from starting January 2014 37 minutes 56 seconds to this January 2015 27 minutes 51 seconds, which I’m pretty pleased about and seeing some results. Health benefits Not forgetting the huge amount of encouragement from my new running mates I have managed to shed 46lb, and it continues to drop a little each month. The weight has always fluctuated in the past, and not being a huge diet fan I simply decided to follow the simple training schedules and make really small adjustments to my life style and stay away from all the foods we all know are not great life choices. Rewarding parts of parkrun Are so many, and placing friends and health benefits to one side for a moment, I’ve really enjoyed spending some quality time with Debbie (Mrs G) and when she slows down we even have a catch up during a little training run during the week. Any advice for someone thinking of starting I think, I’ve been extremely fortunate with the encouragement and invaluable advice received from my mates at park run, but confirm this is pretty normal for the running fraternity. When I thought of running in the past it seemed a very lonely and individual past time to me, but this is far from the truth. parkrun is a great way to start your journey and I can’t believe I’m typing this. I actively look forward to seeing my mates (not forgetting my mentor ‘Derick’) for a catch up, run and a coffee every Saturday. parkrun is a great opportunity to meet new people of all abilities and if you make the effort, these slightly mad individuals may just change your life while having a giggle at the same time. Favourite motivational quote “Listen big man….it doesn’t matter how long it takes son…. whatever you do, just don’t stop running until you reach the finish”…..Derick Wilkie (always makes me laugh) Final thoughts and long term goal I consider myself fortunate, more by luck than judgement, having been introduced to the running fraternity through parkrun and learning that this sport has so much more to offer people than just dragging your body around a few miles each week. I’ve met and developed great friendships with some lovely people who all deserve so much credit. Long term for me would be to continue running, stay healthy, keep the weight under control, reverse my type two diabetes and inspire at least one other over weight middle aged bloke that there’s more to Saturday mornings than just sitting on the sofa with only a sausage sandwich for company. Credits and mentions All my running mates (you know who you are! They are the ones who eat their own cakes in the café!), my mentor, young (well middle aged) Derick Wilkie…anyone who can overcome mouth cancer and associated treatments, a quadruple heart bypass and still want to keep running to encourage a grumpy middle aged fat bloke in depths of winter come rain, frost, snow every week….is an inspiration in my book. Good luck with the next battle Coach… Finally all the Run Directors and everyone who helps each week at park run …….to anyone who read this far… “DON’T FORGET TO VOLUNTEER’’ at least three times a year, these guys do so much. Pete x
Posted on: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 22:45:16 +0000
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