Chris Perry

Chris has been running for more than 20 years. He came up through the junior track over 1500m and 3K, running 3:51 for 1500m, before finding the steeplechase almost by accident. He went on to represent England in the event and finished fourth and fifth at the British Championships. Now 36, he accepts that hurdling the barriers is a young man's game, and his focus has moved to the roads and the marathon.

His biggest lesson is that anyone can put together a good session or a good week. Real improvement comes from stacking those blocks over a long period of time. Looking back on his 5K racing after university, he says he wasn't doing anything drastically different. He was simply doing it all the time, and had been for years. It isn't a magic pill, and for some people that's the boring answer, but it's the one that worked.

He has also learned not to flog himself every day. In his words, it is better to have four, five, six or seven weeks at 95% than one or two weeks at 100% and an injury. Training at the right threshold, rather than smashing every session, is something he found by feel over the years. Each week he trains with a big club group running similar times, which is rare at his level and makes steady progress over weeks and months possible.

Chris believes there is still room to improve over the marathon. With a proper block and another year or two of consistent training, he thinks a few more minutes are feasible: "Run two seconds a mile quicker and that is a minute gone." Running has given him friends for life, his girlfriend and his family. It has become part of who he is, and he wouldn't change it.