Mike represented Solent Sky Services at the Great South Run

For those who don’t know:

The Great South Run is an annual 10 mile road running race which takes place in Portsmouth, United Kingdom providing an intermediate distance between the ten kilometre and the half marathon runs. Launched in 1990, it is part of the Great Run series created by former British athlete Brendan Foster.

After watching and cheering on all the amazing runners for six years from our friends balcony on Clarence Parade, it was finally time to get involved! I had always said ‘ahh I’ll do it next year’ and never quite got round to signing up let alone getting fit enough.

So shortly after the Great South Run 2017 I signed up and began training. I was a regular at the Heart Of Portsmouth Boxing Academy and started the NHS Couch to 5k running app but became ill during winter with a bad sinus infection.. jumping in the sea over by Still & West on Christmas Day didn’t do me any favours this year haha. One of our friends has done this for over 50 years as a tradition and I’ve joined in the last three years!

It happens to us all… I got wrapped up in work and other matters and didn’t get round to progressing my training and despite the date creeping up I just didn’t get round to getting fit. I was however super determined to take part and didn’t want to miss out.

The next thing I knew my number had arrived…

When I initially signed up I decided to run for Mind and Cancer Research. Both charities are close to our hearts.

Just five years ago my little brother was diagnosed with cancer, it was a super hard time for us and fortunately thanks to all the amazing staff at the NHS he’s now all clear and only has to go back for check ups once a year.

One of our amazing friends who is practically family now is currently undergoing treatment for bowel cancer and is evidently being looked after superbly.

Another friend of ours, a local professional photographer, has also recently been diagnosed with cancer and he again is being looked after immensely well.

Much like mental health, cancer touches everyone in some way during their lifetime and its thanks to all the amazing people in this world the people affected are looked after.

Mind is also super close to our hearts but I’ll save that for another story some day…

So I learnt the hard way. It’s super important to train very hard for events like these! I ran a time of 02:26:45 but I’m amazingly proud of myself for taking part and completing. Hopefully this blog will inspire others and of course raise money for my chosen charities.

I started out right at the back of 26,000 people and finished in 15,393 position.

Next year I plan to run again and encourage you to join me! I’ve also got the bug now and will be running as much as possible over the next year leading up to the next Great South Run.

My goal for next year is to run the entire way and beat this years time. Under two hours would be nice. I did manage a good solid 5 miles without walking though so very proud.

I was running with Sara’s cousin for all of 1 mile before he zoomed off haha!