Running Bonkers

About ryanshaw72

I'm Ryan, a pisces born in 1972, and live in Cheam which, although officially in Surrey, also falls within the London Borough of Sutton.

For work, I manage a team of software developers, mostly split between London and New York. Software development, or the management of it, has been my whole career, but sport has always played a big part of my life.

In my younger days, athletics was my chosen activity, sprinting and jumping for the local village athletics club in Overton. After very briefly representing Hampshire over the 100 metres and Long Jump, my attention turned to rugby when I was about 22, a game I played a lot at school, but not again since I had started athletics. Rugby is a game I played until recently, but running seems to have taken over. The camaraderie and friendship between a team of 15 on the field, and the extended team after the game, is amazing to be a part of.

I had never been a long distance runner, but always wondered "could I?". Running was something I used just to keep myself fit with a half-marathon distance being my furtherest attempt. However, I had wanted to challenge myself which introduced me to ultra-running and my first competitive entry into the 100km Thames Path Challenge in September 2013.  The rest, as they say, is history ...