Runners

HRH RWORDS: RICK PEARSON. PHOTOGRAPHS: DAN ROSSJULY 2018 RUNNERSWORLD.CO.UK 023``````MAKING A CHANGELEWIS SUFFERED A DEVASTATING LOSS.THESE STEPS HELPED HIM TO COPE``````TALK TO SOMEONE‘Whether it’s a friend or anexpert, it’s important to talkabout how you’re feeling.’``````GET ACTIVE‘Running was the greatesttherapy for me. It 100 per centhelped me to deal with the loss.’``````GIVE SOMETHING BACK‘Tommy’s helped me back then- now it’s my turn to give back.’FINDING A WAYLewis Keywoodhas gone from17st junk-food fanto personal trainer``````also led him to transformhis lifestyle. ‘Before I lostmy son, I weighed over 17stone and worked in a jobI hated,’ says Lewis, who’snow a personal trainer.‘Carrying his coffin at thefuneral was the hardestthing I have ever had todo, but I decided to useYolki’s death as a catalystfor change.’For Lewis, who had runa little at school but wasnow leading a sedentarylifestyle, this meant lacingup his running shoes oncemore. He trained for a5K race, raising moneyfor Tommy’s, and quicklybegan to shed the excessweight. More thanimproving his physicalhealth, however, runningwas helping him to dealwith the emotionaldistress of losing a child.‘It’s the most therapeuticthing I’ve done,’ he says.‘If you go out for an hourrun, you come back andfeel a little bit betterabout yourself and yoursituation. Running hasbeen a massive help forme in that respect.’The therapeuticqualities of running wereparticularly important toLewis as he had, he says,found it hard to grieve.‘It’s an unthinkablesituation for anyone tohave to face, but I found itespecially hard as a man.The woman carries thebaby so, naturally, theyfeel a huge connection.``````But I ended up feelingguilty: I just didn’t wantto admit that I wasstruggling, too. That’swhy I’m now trying toreach out to dads who areaffected by this. We needto talk and share storiesto understand that we’renot alone, and that bothparents suffer whentragedies like this occur.’That message feelsparticularly importantwhen you consider thatthe UK has one of thehighest stillbirth ratesin the developed world,and that recent statisticssuggest one in fourpregnancies end inmiscarriage. ‘Think howmany friends you have –everyone is likely to knowsomeone who’s beendirectly affected bythis,’ says Lewis. ‘Thischallenge is all aboutraising money andawareness for them.’Although Lewis hascompleted dozens of raceson behalf of Tommy’s –from 5Ks to marathons –this year’s challenge is ona much bigger scale. Tocomplete it, he needs toaverage almost 10km aday. To help him in thisquest, he’s runningmarathons – includingLondon (he finished in3:41:25) and Exeter – andhas signed up for his firstultra, the 100km Race tothe Stones. ‘I’m now livingin Devon and have somegreat trails along the``````Jurassic Coast, so it’s theperfect training ground,’says Lewis. ‘If the ultragoes well, me and a friendare planning to run thelength of the Thames[215 miles] in four days.’Fitting in the trainingand racing, however, is noteasy. ‘I now occasionallywork 14-15-hour days, sowhen I get home the lastthing I want to do is run,’he says. ‘But it’s the samefor a lot of people. I justknow I can’t afford totake my foot off the gas,otherwise I’ll leave myselfwith too many miles to do.’Alongside raising moneyfor Tommy’s, Lewis hopeshis running will offer amessage of hope. ‘I wantto show people that nomatter what’s happenedto them, they can changetheir life for the better,’he says. ‘Before I started``````running, I was working inairport security, eatingjunk food and not beingvery active. I used to usethe excuse that I was tootired to do anything. Butwhen I started running,I made the time. I got upearlier and ran beforework, or planned runsinto my week.‘Everyone you speakto who isn’t a runnerautomatically says stufflike, “I’m not a runner;I couldn’t do it for thisreason or that reason.”I used to think I wastoo fat to run, too. But,actually, anyone can run- even if it’s on a treadmillfor five minutes. Mymessage is this: give it ago – you’ll be surprised bywhat you can do.’‘IF YOU GO OUT FOR AN HOUR RUN, YOUCOME BACK AND FEEL A LITTLE BIT BETTERABOUT YOURSELF AND YOUR SITUATION’