We’ve met Mrs Brown, and now here’s Mr B.  Alan Brown is one of our “hard” runners who enjoys doing a HARDMOORS race, which he calls a “fun run in the sun” !

Alan’s now retired, but his career covered roles in finance, managing change programmes and leadership coaching. In his last job with Public Health England he was responsible for getting finances approved and in place to roll out the extension of breast screening and bowel screening to younger people across England, and getting Treasury approval in place to secure a large and rapid increase in front line health protection resources needed as COVID approached.

Where are you from originally?

Born in Jarrow and brought up in Hebburn - the home of Steve Cram and Brendan Foster. Sadly, I’m unrelated to either. Lived in Yorkshire since I went to University in Sheffield in the early 80’s.

What do you do when you’re not running (our “what a silly question”)

Love fellwalking , spending time with our Sprocker Finley, cooking and, oh dear, this is sad … I’ve gone back to my university days as a maths student and spend a silly amount of time studying pure mathematics again. I can’t explain it to myself so please don’t ask.

How long have you been running?

I ran the second Great North Run at 17 in 1982 with school friends and then did some gentle stretching until 2010 when Jacqui got me back into it.

What got you started in the first place?

The Great North Run inspires me. My dad had died a couple of months before I ran in 1982 and then when I got back into running my mam had died and wanted her ashes scattered with my dad’s at South Shields Crem. The crem is at mile 9 on the GNR route and it set me thinking to do the race again. Now, pretty much every year, I stop at mile 9 and raise my water bottle to my mam and dad, and they give me a lease of life just as others are flagging.

Favourite events and distances?

I enjoy distances around ten miles but somehow find myself drawn to longer and tougher runs. At the moment I’m loving the Hardmoors events - trail races all over the North York Moors and looking to do all the “half marathons” ( which tend to be 17-18 miles ).

The race or event you’re most proud of?

I’ve done seven marathons but London in 2022 has to top it off as just the best experience and atmosphere of any event I’ve ever been at.

Any kit hints you’d like to share, favourite shoes etc? Or “what I know now that I wish I’d known then?)

Have a training plan but as you get more experienced, be comfortable tweaking the plan and know which bits you could ditch or replace. With long trail races I’ve also just learnt that Coca Cola and Jaffa cakes trump water and sports gels every time.

Have you run with other clubs as well as or before Haxby Runners? What’s good about being part of a club?

I had thought about joining other local running clubs but working long hours meant it just didn’t work for me and they tended to be based on the other side of York. Now walking up the street works just fine for me - as long as it’s not too early . It’s great getting to know folk and to run socially and competitively with them.

Running ambitions?

I’ve entered my first ultra for next January, a 30 mile trail along the Coast from Robin Hoods Bay, #pitythefool . If the body holds out I I’ll be exploring more of those. I’ve enjoyed leading runs with Haxby Runners, especially starting to get folk out on the trails and doing some more structured sessions, so looking forward to more of that.