How a 105kg-man transformed into a marathon runner
GLASGOW: Drinking, smoking and weighing 105kg is not something one would associate with a long-distance runner but Steve Way has overcome these barriers to become England’s marathon man at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
From being worryingly fat and wheezy, the 40-year-old has completely overhauled his life to become fast and breezy.
“I didn’t really take any interest in sport at school,” Way, from Poole in Dorset, told BBC.
“I was pretty good at maths and physics, a bit of a geek. But I also enjoyed myself quite a lot in my twenties. There was quite a lot of drinking, quite a lot of smoking and quite a lot of late-night kebabs after nights out with the boys in Bournemouth.”
“The big change came when I was 33, in September 2007. I was at my heaviest, about 16-and-a-half stone, and I was smoking about 20 cigarettes a day. I’d have sleepless nights because of the coughing. It STEVE WAY, on his old life
wasn’t pleasant.”
“I’d be lying if I said I had an epiphany but I didn’t like the person I saw in the mirror in the morning and I do remember the emotion I felt, the feeling that ‘right, I’ve really got to do something, make some changes’,” said Way.
“I wasn’t clinically depressed but I was just moseying from one day to the next. I had no goals in life. There was nothing going on to get me excited.”
Having trained for three weeks, Way took part in the London Marathon in 2006, finishing in a little over three hours.
What is even more incredible is that the Englishman has somehow managed to combine running 130 miles a week with a nine to five job in a bank.
“Running is a choice, not my job,” says Way. “At the start of this journey I had a wellpaid IT career but the hours didn’t fit in with my training. So I changed jobs, took a considerable pay cut and made sacrifices.
“I have to be a little bit selfish — the training takes up a lot of my time. When I got married I wasn’t the person I am now, but my wife Sarah is so supportive. She sees how happy it makes me and the passion it’s brought us as a couple.” Silver: