As a child, Tom loved running, which he excelled at…
He told us that in primary school they used to have a 5-minute run, where students had to run as far as they could in 5 minutes and then stop. He used to beat everyone in the school… most of the time even beating children 2 or 3 years older than himself.
The headmaster of our school said I was like a machine.”
Meet Tom Heath
Tom took up running in his late teens and loved it!
He ended up running between 30 and 130 km a week for the next 15 years.
I ran for the Timaru and Ashburton Harrier clubs making many friends and running many a trail here up and down New Zealand.”
He says that after 5 marathons and many a half-aways, training hard with wonderful enjoyment and the thrill of the high one feels and sense of accomplishment of a training run or race was always a major drawcard for him.
Running many charity races, especially the longer events has been a driving force behind Tom’s love of running because he loves giving to others.
His life motto is: “To live to give.”
In the last marathon I ran, my wife and I raised 730 dollars for the local missionaries from our church. I have a small charitable trust called 2B4U helping people where I can and using running as a part of that.”
Tom says…Running is Boss! (We couldn’t agree more!)
Personal Records
Tom had 15 years off running and only came back to running during covid.
He said that he could hardly run just 1 km, but Tom’s best friend and son encouraged him to keep going!
Over the next 3 months even though it was hard, he ran 3 days a week up to 15 km persisting for 3 months and found that he got really fast and was able to run long distances again, which surprised him as he is now 55.
Joining Coach Parry has helped me and I have been running Some good PBs.
19:40 for 5km,
43:12 for 10km
and recently dipping under 3:30 for the marathon (3:29:43)”
Speaking of the marathon… this has been Tom’s most recent PB!
He beat his previous marathon PB by 12 minutes, it was the Mt Cook Marathon 3 months ago.
“Lindsey had me do a run-walk strategy on a course with a 500 m elevation.
It took a while to get my head around walking in a race but I followed his advice and it worked 💪 superbly. I was super thrilled with my result. Thanks to Lindsey.”
Tom had made steady progress and still pinches himself that he can still run fast for his age without injuries and says his carbon plated shoes are amazing!
Tom’s Marathon PB was the Napier Marathon in New Zealand. This was his forum post:
“I trained for the last 12 weeks for the Napier Marathon here in New Zealand on Saturday. Hopefully cracking the 3:30 barrier and a 12-minute PB which I had trained for.
The training went Excellent and the time trials,+ long runs were on schedule.
The day dawned perfect, cool, and overcast. I started cautiously and into the 2nd km got up to pace and hovered between 4:50 and 5min per km at km 4 a group of 6 formed and we all ran together until the 30km mark working together. My gels & water bottles at the aid stations went fantastic and my body responded perfectly to the sustenance.
The last 10km was hard as it should be. But I held it together only dropping off marginally per km, legs very sore, and with a solid finish up the straight broke my PB by 12min in a time of 3 hours 29 minutes 43 seconds. 6th for my age bracket 50- 59
Super Thrilled, Ecstatic and Elated were some of my thoughts as I finished. My wife Lis ran under 1hour 59 min, for the 10km for the first time after only taking up running last August!
Thank you, coaches, and Lindsay and Shona. Great program. 👍
Then the weekend finished perfectly with Liverpool winning the FA cup final against Chelsea. Simply AWESOME 👌 “
Joining Coach Parry
Tom has been with Coach Parry for just over a year now and he says that the big drawcard was the Fast beyond 50 program and the science behind it.
Join us for a free online presentation of the…
The Faster Beyond 50 Masterclass
…and discover how you can run well (and faster) as you get older, without training more or harder than you currently are, all while avoiding injury.
If it feels like you’re training harder than ever but not running the paces you’d like to be running or if you’re constantly tired, fatigued or running in some sort of pain, then this is specifically for you.
Save your seat in this training now…
He stumbled across it on YouTube.
Contributors To Tom’s Success
Tom told us that the biggest contributor to his success with the program has been…”Less is better than more, training smarter not harder, strength training and lots of stretching!”
Follow the program and the program will work for you every time, with hard work discipline and dedication.”
What’s Next…
Tom wants to run another 2 marathons in the next 9 months and maybe his first trail race.
Raising some more money for charity but always striving to do my best and run faster. 😀”
Challenges Along The Way
He tells us that he set his goal just out of reach so that it was only attainable with dedication and hard work.
His money runs were the 25 -35km runs which made him feel confident as he stood on the start lines.
Tom believes that his attention to detail… running bottles instead of taking cups like everyone else, having gels in his zippers, and bottles in his belt bag.
Nutrition and Carbo-loading in the days before and racing smart by not going out too fast made him not have any struggles other than his legs being sore over the last 10km.
Hardest Part Of Achieving His Marathon PB
The last 4Km it was going to be close. But mentally I was strong holding myself together and driving myself to reach my goal of under 3:30. When the going gets tough the tough get going!”
Exactly Tom! Congratulations again on this incredible PB.
You really are a machine!💪
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