Rowland Hughes - Kit Secretary & Committee Member
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Rowland Hughes - Kit Secretary & Committee Member
I’ve been a runner, off and on, since childhood. I was a decent schoolboy sprinter, but I hated cross-country and had no natural endurance at all. After years of playing football, I started running a bit in my late twenties, ran a few 10ks and a half-marathon, and even tackled the New York Marathon in 2004 (which wasn’t pretty). But I was running alone and didn’t have any kind of structured training plan.
Then I badly broke my leg and dislocated my ankle while playing football, which took a long time to recover from. I managed to rehab quite well and got back to running a little bit, but then my son was born and all exercise stopped for a while. Before I knew it I had put on a lot of weight and was really out of shape. I moved to Harpenden in 2013 and was determined to get fit. I ran the Herts 10k in 2014, then started jogging a bit on the Nickey Line and cycling to work. A year later I decided to join Arrows. My original goal was just to get vaguely close to my old PBs in 10k and half marathon – but I really thought they were out of reach. Within a few months I had completely obliterated them – I had no idea what a difference running with the club would make.
Injuries have taken a bit of a toll recently but hopefully, I’ll be pounding the pavements of Harpenden for many years to come.