Member profile - Andy Muir

Member profile alert 🚨

This week the team green spot light falls upon A group regular Andy Muir.

1. Please Briefly introduce yourself.

My name is Andy Muir, I was a relatively late starter to running and didn’t take it up until my 30s, I’m I my 40s now. I wasn’t a bad runner but struggled to improve my pace. I joined Brentwood Running Club roughly 2 years ago and haven’t looked back. I’m currently running with A Group.

I was apprehensive joining a running club as I was worried it might be a bit cliquey and a bit elitist, but nothing could be further from the truth; you couldn’t want to meet a more friendly and inclusive group of people. My running has really come on and I’ve made some great friends with it.

2. What events if any do you have coming up?

I was supposed to be doing the Chelmsford Half back in March but that was postponed to October. As Covid restrictions start to ease I need to get some races in my calendar, I do love a 10K!

3. What does running mean to you?

Health and Fitness remains my main motivation for running but I also enjoy the simplicity of it as a sport, it’s you against the numbers and I love pushing myself to get faster and go further.

There’s also no better way to get rid of the stresses of the day, I always come back feeling better than when I went out.

4. What is your best BRC memory?

It has to be last October at the Queen Elizabeth Park 10K; we had gone to this as a mini-team and the camaraderie was great: Terry Allen, Phil Price and Dan Jaycock all socially distanced of course. This was the first time I got under 40mins for a 10K and I’d been trying to do this for as long as I can remember, Terry Allen was screaming his lungs out at the finish line, willing me across the line, he was close to being thrown off the course!

It wasn’t just that day, it was all the months of hard work training, setbacks and come backs leading up to that. I’d trained with those guys and they’d helped me across the line, I couldn’t have been happier.

5. Proudest running moment?

That Queen Elizabeth 10K, I do get a bit obsessed with the numbers and I’d had that sub-40min 10K in my head for a long, long time. But it was also when running changed into a team sport for me, being there as a group, encouraging each other and sharing in the success made me proud to be part of the team.

6. Best bit of running advice you could give or have been given.

“I’m going to have to science the sh*t out of this!” – Mark Watney (The character played by Matt Damon in the film ‘The Martian’).

Understanding the theory, looking at the data and figuring out where there are improvements to be made is part of the fun for me. If nothing else, the placebo of thinking you’ve found a difference is all you need!