Our very own Bearded Wonder first started running at his secondary school, doing cross-country and track events. From there he drifted away from running in favour of 5-a-side football and then rugby, where he spent thirteen years playing rugby for Ripley Rhinos, ‘gracing’ the centre or wing. He is a keen cyclist and rides nearly every day, including regular commutes, social rides and mountain bike adventures. Read more here.

James started running in October 2017, having been on a weight loss journey for the previous couple of years. After beginning his forties weighing in at nearly 25 stones and with a number of health issues, he managed to literally halve his body weight. Running was a significant part of that journey. He freely admits to not having a clue what he was doing in the early stages. Read more here.

Martine joined Weight Watchers in January 2017 and to help her lose weight and started walking or cycling with her family nearly every day after work. She reached her goal weight in May 2017, losing 4 stone in total. In June 2017 Weight Watchers set a challenge for all its members to do a 5k.  Read more here.

Having dabbled in running on and off throughout her adult life Emma began again in 2018 and quickly decided to join a group to keep her motivated.

Emma says: “It was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made, not only did my running go from strength to strength I also made some fantastic, like-minded friends who supported me in my journey." Read more here.

Michelle has always hated running. Like many people, she has memories of absolutely dreading cross country in her P.E. lessons. She hated it and would just walk around chatting with her friends – that bit won’t be a surprise to anyone that knows her! Although running wasn’t really her thing and she wasn’t very athletic, she was competitive and did enjoy team games like netball and football. Read more here.

Caroline is our very own Rogue Superwoman! She lives in Belper and is married to Gareth with 2 grown-up children. She likes chocolate, alcohol and socialising (not necessarily in that order). She has always enjoyed a variety of sports since being at school, but cross-country running was at the bottom of her list. Read more here.

Marie started her running journey back in May 2018. “At the time a few of my colleagues had started running using the NHS Couch to 5K app, so I decided to give it a go as well. I remember that very first run as clear as day and how hard I found it! Afterwards, I walked back home feeling very unfit thinking there was no way I would get past the first week let alone complete the whole programme”.  Read more here.

Beki has a radiating smile that has adorned hundreds of selfies! She first found her love for running at school, representing the school and district in cross country and track events. Having left school, she gave it up until after she started a family a good few years later.  Read more here.

Sally lives in Waingroves with her partner Dale and their combined brood - Joe, Finlay, Florence and Freya and she joined Rogue Runner Ripley after returning to her home county, following 20 years of living in Shropshire. Sally enjoyed a variety of sports throughout school and college. Read more here.

Kat is one of our most recently qualified leaders. She always stands out on a Rogue Run as her clothing is, shall we say, never bland?!?!  Kat has been running since 2017. She decided to give it a go as a way of keeping fit and active and because it can be done whenever you want. She was also attracted to it because it’s a relatively cheap activity (little did she know at that stage just how much she’d be spending on this ‘free’ hobby). Read more here. 

Carly’s running journey began in September 2018, four months after giving birth to her second child. Feeling unfit, overweight and lost in herself, Carly knew she needed something to boost her self-esteem, get active and provide herself some “me time”, escaping the family home and demands every now and again.  Read more here.

Tessa only took up running in her 50s and is one of our most-recently qualified run leaders. A love of exercise passed her by at school, she was the overweight child who was last to be picked for team games. She hated cross country running due to the cold weather and the indignity of communal showers that were commonplace in the 1970s schools. Tessa would often see runners out in the wind, rain and cold and wonder ‘why?’ Read more here.

“Scott first started found a love of running especially cross country at school where “I was able to kick the butts of the footballers” but as he got older his interest waned a lot (girls, cars, going out work cars etc.) to the point he stopped running for a long time 25 years to be exact!  Read more here.

Shane first realised he enjoyed running when he was at secondary school, taking part in weekly cross country runs as part of PE lessons, even representing the school at some cross-country events. When he left school, he lost interest in running - struggling to motivate himself after too many late nights and hangovers. There were much more interesting things to be doing! Like many people, he also had an active job and didn’t feel the need to do any exercise outside of work.  Read more here.

Like lots of children, Sarah didn’t enjoy PE at school, to be honest she absolutely hated it and would have happily have swapped it for double maths! This led to a fear of participating in sport or any kind of exercise and she was relieved when the day came when she could finally throw away her Dunlop Green Flash plimsolls for good. Read more here.

Hilary had never been much of a one for exercise except, that before having children, she enjoyed hill walking when the weather was nice and the odd skiing holiday. Team sports did nothing for her and she was incapable of catching, throwing or hitting a ball.  That said, She has always been aware of the need to keep active to stay healthy....Read more here.