Live Preston & Fylde Issue 100 July 2021

Page 78

RUNNING TOWARDS A BIG 40TH BIRTHDAY In 2018 Kirsty Quigley from Preston started an epic journey little realising that it would result in her planning to run 40 miles for her 40th birthday in August this year, to help raise money for Knife Crime Awareness – In Memory of Colin McGinty But the journey didn’t end there. As Boris Johnson stood up to address the nation on 23rd March 2020 to put us all under

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ack in 2018 Kirsty decided it was time to lose some weight and attempt to get fit. She had never been a fitness person or even a runner, but she was determined to give it a go. Her first attempt at running 5k took her 40 minutes and in her own words, “nearly killed her”. But she was a woman on a mission and through hard work and determination she lost four and a half stone.

THIS YEAR SHE CELEBRATES HER 40TH BIRTHDAY AND HAS DECIDED TO RUN 40 MILES IN AID OF KNIFE CRIME AWARENESS lockdown restrictions, Kirsty was already working from home in her role for Bower Media as a research and insight assistant and she did not relish the prospect of

being stuck at home all day every day. She needed an excuse to get out. So she set about running 5k every day. She stuck to her word and nearly 500 days later she is still out pounding the streets of Preston every day to run 5k, getting her personal best down to just 23 minutes. As day 100 approached on her running journey Kirsty wanted to challenge herself further and on day 97 she ran a full marathon, lapping Ashton Park in Preston 19 times. Not a bad achievement for someone who still claims to not be a running person. That still wasn’t enough though and the challenges continued for Kirsty. This


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