Adam Brooke-Smith

As we all know 2020 has been a very difficult year. As for 2021, well, we all hope things will improve. Personally, 2021 is a year where I want to try and push myself physically and mentally.

When lockdown started back in March, it cut short the rugby season. For me, training was the point in the week where I could go and forget about everything in the world and just focus on the skills of the game. When I no longer had this option I decided to take up running instead and so did Simone.

Together we gradually built up our strength and stamina to start running 10k comfortably. Through the next few months we started to push each other to our limits. Even in lockdown we were really starting to enjoying our time running round Loughborough. Even the hills round Cullingworth couldn’t stop us when we moved back to Yorkshire in May.

Things looked to be on the up for us and in June we discovered we were expecting our 1st child. Although a little surprised we were over the moon with the news and couldn’t wait to start our journey as parents. However just over a month later Simone started with unexplained rib pain, and after multiple visits over 5 days to GP’s and A&E it was discovered there were small blood clots in Simone’s lungs. Sadly on the 2nd A&E visit they decided to check that everything was okay with the baby and the unfortunate news baby C was no longer with us.

Simone was forced to stop running because of the miscarriage, the blood clots and the secondary lung infection that came with it. This left me running on my my own and became my new release. In the times of stress and mental fatigue from everything, running up and down hills helped relieve a lot of it.

This is why in 2021 I am pushing myself to do 12 challenges throughout the year, one every month. These challenges are going to be either walking, cycling or running. I am also doing this for charity in light of events last year and want to help raise awareness for how common miscarriage is and to try in some small way remove the stigmas around it. Details regarding charity and donation will be announced in due course

I will be posting at the start of each month the challenge I will be completing, and if anyone would be interested in joining then by all means come join me and give me some company. Some challenges may change or swap months due to the pandemic but all will be notified on social media. There is one final challenge to continue all year round which will be looking to run, walk and cycle the year with the total of 2021km.