Born in London,1981. Started running in the 800m, absolutely loved it, the thrill of sustained speed. Coached by the legendary Frank Horwill, trained hard but was ravaged by injuries, especially Achilles. Never achieved my potential on the track but learnt a lot on the way, living and training with the best athletes and coaches in the world. Stayed in the famous St Patrick’s training camp in Kenya on many occasions. Learnt Swahili and got the nickname ‘Kipitgud’, which means hairy face, in Kalenjin. Charming. Set up a running camp for slightly less talented (but still extremely talented) Kenyan runners. Some of whom got contracts and raced in Europe.
After relocating to Snowdonia in 2012 (wrote a blog about it somewhere) and then having children (wrote a blog about it nowhere), have found my love of running again. Fell running has given me a robustness that improves my ability to withstand harder training. Have represented Wales several times abroad. Won the Snowdonia Marathon in 2016 and 2018, kick-started my marathon career and earnt me the nickname ‘Russell Runner’.
Love walking in the mountains. My wife, Nina, and 2 children try to live a simple life where we are outdoors as much as possible (which normally means getting rained on).
Ran my personal best of 2.20.20 in the Berlin Marathon (read post here, or listen to Marathon Talk podcast here). I like to think of myself as a bit of a mesomorph (think ‘He-Man’). Would secretly love to get back on the track one day and have a another crack at 800m, but it probably wouldn’t be be very pretty. Besides, 800m is more painful than marathons anyway. Can I say that? It’s my blog.
Found the Paddy Buckley Round during Covid lockdown. Successfully completed the 100km route over 47 peaks of Snowdonia in the winter (read post here). Then moved onto even longer, harder stuff, i.e. the Dragon’s Back Race (post here). 236 miles, twice the elevation of Everest. It’s not called the Toughest Mountain Race In The World for nothing.
I’m a UK Athletics fully qualified coach with a squad who train at Treborth track (Bangor) every Tuesday, 6pm (join in here).
Always looking for new challenges (which really means; ways to piss off Nina).
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Please see below for some pretty pictures of me…
