Shit, I didn’t see that coming!

Well, this is weird, I haven’t won anything since the Whitburn gala day table tennis gold medal in 1978.

It’s also over 30 years since I made a speech in front of this number of people. Funnily enough though, that was the start of a fabulous journey too.

It’s Ashleigh’s fault I’m here. She saw the advert on Facebook and talked to Lesley and I about it. Signed herself up and tried to convince us to join her. For some reason, we signed up without telling her – dunno why – but the penny dropped when we said we’d give her a lift to the launch night as we were going anyway and her reaction was priceless. It’s been an absolute privilege to have been on this programme with 3⁄4 of my family and with the missing link cheering us on every step of the way.

I personally signed up because I was in a health rut. I was well overweight and well under-fit. I did have a state of the art cross trainer at home, and I was even using it! I was walking my 10, 000 steps a day, but I wasn’t really getting anywhere. And then I did one of those life assessment things. You know the ones, on a scale of 1 to 10 how good are your financial circumstances,

career, relationships, sex life. And I was doing great. Until it came to health and wellbeing, and then my score was hopeless.

I got to thinking that, with everything else looking so rosy, I should really fix that!Enter Ashleigh stage left, with her Burn It Transformation Facebook post.

I have to admit to taking at least a week, and maybe more, to reconcile in my head that I was joining. My inner pessimist was telling me “you can’t run you can’t do circuits, you’ll have a heart attack, You’ll look stupid, you’ll never be able to keep up, you won’t be able to push myself hard enough, your T-shirts will rise up, and you won’t fit in because it’ll be all mean girls and buff boys.”

I genuinely wish we had been doing the Burn It Big Brother we talked about, because this is where they’d show my ‘best bits’, but you’ll just have to put up with my recollections.

Before we even started, I lost 15% of my body fat. Well, that was the difference between my scales and Paul’s anyway. I was so convinced that mine were right and his were wrong that in my final health check as I’m watching him pressing buttons and looking at the numbers funny, I’m thinking ‘he’s going to have to admit he made a mistake at the start now’

I came along to my first camp on day 1, August 27th, and thought I did okay. On day 2 and 3 when I couldn’t lower myself into a seat, or raise myself out of one, or walk from one place to another, I thought ‘ah well, it was only £129 quid’.

I missed the first Sunday session (different meaning to that now Ashleigh, eh?) because I was away on business. But that Sunday was also week 6, run 3 of my couch to 5k programme – the 25 minute run. 12 minutes in, I was in agony; shin splints that made me feel like the bottom half of my right leg had disconnected from the top half. Practically crying with pain and frustration, I was all set to quit! Coming back home the following Thursday and I get a phone call from Ash – am I going to boot camp? I’ve missed your mum says I, I was planning a night in. Mum said you’d use that excuse she says. Needless to say, I was running round Howden park in the rain a few hours later. I asked Paul about the shin splints. In his usual style, he explained all of the physiological and mechanical details and then said “keep stretching, keep coming to camp, and they’ll go away” As always, he was spot on! The following Sunday after a few more boot camps, I managed that 25 minutes along the sea front at Millport – pain free for the first time, and there’s been no looking back since.

Anyway, fast forward past about 30 camps, 20

morning jogs, 1 home exercise workout (sorry); my conquering of the burpee, squat jump and push up; hill runs, a brilliant first park run (thanks to Becky, and everyone else who made it along to what was probably the birth of #OneTeam); Muireston trail: Cockleroy and the bloody forth road bridge (it’s NOT flat) and I stand before you tonight a transformed man.

So, what’s changed? It turns out I can run, I can do circuits, I haven’t had a heart attack, I might still look stupid, I don’t need to keep up, “because we pick our own pace”, I mange to push myself pretty hard at times, and the girls and boys I’ve met along the way, have each been more inspirational and supportive than the next.

Oh, and I’ve replaced a drawer full of clothes that were too small, but are now too big and, with one full of fitness gear that I use practically every day; and the takeaway menus from the side of my fridge have been replaced with park run barcodes.

More importantly I’m stronger mentally and physically than I have been since I was a child; I have a new way of life, which I have no doubt it is completely sustainable and I’ve found a genuine third place at Burn IT, that I simply can’t imagine being without.

I wouldn’t have wanted to do this without the

beautiful Lesley & Ashleigh at my side, I couldn’t have done this without Paul, Julie-Ann, Mark and Marcella right behind me, and I have to reiterate that I genuinely didn’t expect this, because every single person around me on this programme has had such amazing results.

Burn It BT+ class of 2018, it’s hard to imagine finding a more motivational, inspirational and supportive team in any walk of life, and it has been absolutely humbling to have been a part of this #OneTeam, and I’m sincerely looking forward to continuing my journey with all off you.

Now, to paraphrase Paul, ‘you can see the bar from here, so it’s time for a sprint finish’

Let’s get this party started!