We have lost Ed. It doesn’t feel real.

I got to know him in summer 2017. Geth had a broken toe and Ed had a broken ankle, and they did a lot of parkrun marshalling together that summer. In the September, we bumped into him in the queue for the GNR pasta party. He was still recovering from the broken ankle but there was no question he was going to run the GNR. He’d run every single one since it started in 1981. This was the Ed I knew and would continue to know – determined, stubborn or slightly mad. Take your pick.

In the late 2010s he was a regular race buddy and we often debriefed with a drink after various Blaydons, Sunderlands and Town Moor Marathons. We met up at the expo when I did my first marathon (London 2019) and it was very calming to see a friendly face from home.

At the start of 2020 I embarked on my run streak. Looking to keep my running interesting now I was committed to it daily, I went along to a couple of the Up and Running shop social runs following a recommendation from Carol Davison. Ed was there, of course, and he was really interested to hear about my streak, having started his own the previous year. It was a good group at Up and Running, but COVID-19 put an end to both the group and, eventually, the shop.

During the worst of the pandemic, running was all we had in the way of outdoor time and contact, and Ed was especially keen to take part in online virtual challenges (I believe there was one point at which he was running about 300 miles a month as part of his team’s effort for a virtual race around the world). In summer 2020, again via Carol D, I found that Ed had set up a small social group with runners from the shop runs to train for the Virtual GNR. I trained with the group that summer, though at that point they were a bit fast for me and I went back to solo running for a while after the virtual race. The group would go on to become the Town Moor Bench Runners.

As we gradually returned to social running in 2021, Ed was always there to chat to – at Ultra North, at the first Town Moor parkrun after the hiatus, at North Tyneside 10k with the Benchies now in orange club shirts. We met up in London again when I ran the marathon for the second time in October 2021, and this time made a weekend of it, attending Southwark parkrun together for a shakeout.

The following summer, needing a bit of a boost to my running mojo, I started running with the Benchies every Friday. Then also every Monday. Then also every Sunday. I was struggling very badly with my ankylosing spondylitis in 2022 and was still very slow, but the Benchies stop a lot to let slower people catch up, and so the group suited me. Ed, as the group leader, was there at every run, and so for years I ran with him three or four times a week, including parkrun. I don’t really socialise outside of running, and the friendship of Ed and the Benchies meant more to me than I have ever been able to say.

Having known me as a slow runner for many years, Ed was as surprised as anyone when my running pace started to improve in 2023 (due to going on biologics for the spondylitis). Of the ambitious paces I would put down as my target when entering races, he would always say, ‘Are you really going to put that down? That’s nearly as fast as MY time.’ Ed was in top form in 2023, running London in 3:49 and coming 10th in his age category (he was cross that he didn’t place higher!). He regularly won his age category at local races and was always scoping out the competition among the 70+ runners. While he never lost that competitive edge even with friends, he was a hugely supportive running buddy and was immensely proud of the achievements of everyone in the Benchies. He instigated a seasonal trophy to highlight running excellence, and I was so touched when he gave me the first award in January 2024. Ever since then, the trophy has been passed on four times per year, with the current holder choosing the next winner, and it was most recently jointly awarded to Ed himself for his incredible effort in running his final marathon in London this year.

I would never have even thought of running an ultra if not for Ed. He had completed The Wall several times and in late 2023 was keen to get other Benchies to sign up to the upcoming Bridges to Boundaries ultra, a 34-mile race along the Tyne. In a moment of madness, I signed up, and in March 2024 the two of us ran it together. We walked a lot, we drank a lot of flat Coke, we took wrong turns and had to clamber down near-vertical slopes. We got interviewed by Al Pepper for his YouTube channel and later commiserated with each other about being left out of the video in favour of sheep. Ultras are no joke and I couldn’t have done it without him, even when he was telling me off for planning to skip the Benchie long run the following day. But it’s one of my greatest running memories.

Of course, a fortnight later we were giving each other no quarter in an eyeballs-out sprint finish for the line at North Tyneside 10k, both desperate to be the first Benchie home. (I won on that occasion – my first sub-50. He allowed himself two seconds of disappointment before giving me a congratulatory hug, and got his revenge at Blaydon a few months later. Ed never forgot a grudge!)

Even in 2025, when Ed was starting to have a lot of problems with his breathing and his heart, he was still at every Benchie run. It was only this year that he had to stop, which caused him huge frustration. Running was his life, and we were the lucky people he chose to run with.

I would not be the runner I am today if not for Ed and his endless passion for running. The hundreds of miles together, the lively chats about races and fuelling and Vaporflys. I’m finding it very hard to process that we won’t have that anymore.

I will run forever in his memory.

Heavy work month is over as of yesterday and so Geth and I emerged blinking onto the Moor this morning with the aim of ‘giving it a go’ and seeing where we are ahead of next week’s race. I did give it a go (as evidenced by my aching lungs this afternoon, standard in an asthmatic following a bit of a send* at parkrun), and ‘where I am’ is… well, it’s not where I want to be, but that can’t really be helped after five weeks of work and travel getting in the way of running.

General running reflection/update: the main thing I want to focus on after next week’s half is just getting the miles back into my legs. I’ve been on 12-hour workdays for the last few weeks (the joys of freelancing!) and haven’t been able to make time during the workweek for more than a streak saver mile, so other than that it’s just been easy parkruns and a ten-mile TMBR social most Sundays. In normal times (non-injured, normal workload) I do five or six ‘proper’ runs and one or two streak savers per week, as well as strength training and cross-training on the stationary bike. None of that has been happening recently, so I’ve felt a bit miserable and out of routine, and of course the training plan for next week’s half has gone out the window completely (and as such it’s no longer a goal race for me, just a day out). I long for six-plus-mile plods along sunny summer paths. Getting back to a more manageable work-life balance will allow that, and from experience, I know the speed will come back with the miles.

Volunteering next week pre-race!

*For the non-runners: ‘sending it’ means running as fast as you can. I wouldn’t quite describe today as a ‘full send’ (which will generally have you lying on your back afterwards like an elite on TV after a track race) but it was definitely a strong effort.

Here’s the last of the phone boxes that Mum and Dad found on their recent visit to the Lakes.

(Coordinates 54°41’87.1″N, 3°43’81.2″W.)

Gosforth seems to be a relatively touristy place and so this box has become an information box. It’s nicely located too, beside the village car park.

I’m very nearly done with my current heavy work projects and so it looks like I will actually be able to get that book review together next week! Fingers crossed.

Life has been pretty hectic the last few weeks, so it was nice to have another easy parkrunday this morning. A hot one so we took it easy (to be honest everything is easy pace at the moment as running is having to take a bit of a back seat – but we keep going!).

Almost certainly local again next week (though hopefully a few degrees cooler).

Actually managing to log a phone box this week! This is another one that Mum and Dad found in Cumbria.

(Coordinates 54°33’98.3″N, 3°36’46.5″W.)

The Google cars haven’t visited this road since 2009! A forgotten-about place. Glad the phone box is still standing.

I really will try and get that book review together for next week! Alternatively it might be one more Cumbria box. We’ll see.