ABOUT ME

I am passionate about running and being outdoors. 

I am England Athletics Coach in Running Fitness and a Fell, Hill, Off-road and Trail leader. I am also a Lydiard Level 2 endurance coach.

How it all started

Sport has played a huge part in my life since I was a small child. I competed in Rhythmic Gymnastics at high level for many years then played for the Bromsgrove Topcats basketball team for a few years followed by joining a badminton club until marriage and children stopped me for a while.

I started running around twelve years ago, I had two young children at the time and a want to get my fitness back and have a little ‘me’ time. I entered a few 5k and 10k races and was asked by a charity I worked closely with to run the London Marathon for them. That was an offer I couldn’t refuse and I ran my first London Marathon in 2015 alongside my sister. I ran it again in 2018 and I have completed countless half marathons since.

Qualifications

I qualified as a run leader in 2021 and have been leading at my local running ever since. I found huge enjoyment in encouraging and helping other people to run and I decided to take the England Athletics Coach in Running Fitness qualification which I completed in 2023. From there ‘Run with Carly’ was born and I started my first beginners group in September 2023 followed very soon by improvers group and both have proved to be very popular.

In November 2023 I completed the Lydiard L2 coach certification.

The last couple of years I have found huge enjoyment in trail running and, in January 2024, I completed the England Athletics Fell, Hill, Off-road and Trail Leader qualification.

Where I am now

Currently, I offer beginners and improvers running groups, trail running groups and 1:1 coaching sessions.

I genuinely love what I do, I am so proud of all my runners every week and what they are achieving. I call all of my runners athletes and they have named themselves ‘Carly’s Athletes’.

Where it is going

I would like to add more running sessions for all of my groups and some more 1:1 clients.

Alongside running I spend much of my spare time hiking and paddleboarding.

What started as ‘Run with Carly’ is becoming ‘Outdoors with Carly’ as I am currently working towards becoming a Hill and Moorland Leader (hiking) and, eventually, a Mountain Leader through the British Mountaineering Council.