What can you do if you go all in. Simon Freeman

What’s it like to go from smoking 60 cigarettes on a night out, to waking up the next day and deciding to make a change and take up running. Something as simple as running round the block can literally move you to change your life and that is where this week’s weMove podcast goes. We talk to Simon Freeman, co-founder of running publication Like The Wind magazine. Having met Simon a few years ago, through a shared interest in printed magazines with weMove and Like the Wind we knew him to be a runner but I never really asked him why he ran, and even his where his passion for running came from, we would simply shoot the breeze and put the world to rights.

And it's one of those stories that could easily be applied to anyone who is looking for a change or a re routing of there current life path. Simon is a regular guy who made a couple of decisions based on his life and channelled that energy into something more positive unintentionally taking him on a journey that would see him finish in the top 100 at the London Marathon. No mean feat.

Before running Simon was working in London, working long hours in a corporate job, he was no doubt, very good at. But by the sounds of it, not particularly enjoying it, or the life that he had created as a result.

And it was after a night out in London that he woke up, and wondered what had happened to the 60 cigarettes he had bought at the start of that night out.

Now the idea of smoking and waking up, seems like an impossibility. I can't even imagine how he must have felt waking after that night out, but it motivated him to do something different, so he ran. Perhaps it was an inner knowing that he wanted/needed to make a change, or a curiosity if he could make a change and see what was on the other side.

What started as a run round the block, gassed out at the end, lead on to a bit of a personal inquiry into what's next, what is possible, which led to running a marathon, in a respectable time of three hours, 37 minutes for someone who had a few years previously smoked and by his own admission been pretty unhealthy.

This continued leading him to the London Marathon top 100 and taking a full hour off his time finishing in 2h37m07s.

Now the time is an irrelevance but does show Simon’s dedication, tenacity, and ability to double down and experience just what he is capable of, leading him to a new life with a successful creative business with Like the Wind, a print publication sharing the joys of running. It’s a lovely read and really captures the personal experiences of the power of running.

Our interest lies in the journey and process he went on. How he changed his world and lifestyle by taking up running and then evolving from using running as a punishment to avoid self-loathing into running being expressive, playful, and ultimately being in a happy place.

How anyone chooses to move is personal to them and it is not our interest so much. Running was and is Simon's vehicle or movement for expressing himself. what we think matters is how we integrate the feelings that we have when we are moving. The expression, the playing, and ultimately being in a happy curious place into our daily lives, so we can understand the feeling. So when it happens again in our life we are better equipped to recognize those feelings. And when we need to dig in and be resilient, then we can.

It’s a great story of what can be done, we really enjoyed it. So thank you, Simon. And for anyone else who has enjoyed it or thinks this might be an incentive for someone that they know, do share. And if you feel inclined to support us with a donation. There is a link on our website at weMove.world, or the link in our Instagram bio, where you can send us a metaphorical coffee, and it's very much appreciated, so thank you for that, sign up to our newsletter also at weMove.world.

And thank you very much for listening.