Born To Run, Jump & Swim

Lisa Howley 22JULY21

ou know how it is when you hit that big 5.0.

Seemingly overnight, your favourite kind of plans are cancelled plans.

And now, 5.30am has become the time you get up rather than the time you fall into to bed.

You can’t get out of a chair without making sound effects, you think the washing machine is shrinking your clothes when it’s actually the fridge, and your memory has started to fade almost to the point where you could plan your own surprise birthday party.

At least, that’s how it’s supposed to be. Given that the world is a much healthier place – beyond anything our chain-smoking, asbestos-chewing, rat-grilling ancestors could ever have imagined – turning 50 no longer comes free with a midlife crisis. Today, it’s just another birthday. And doctors have long known that birthdays are actually good for you, statistics proving that the people who have the most, live the longest.

“I certainly didn’t feel any kind of panic as the 21st anniversary of my 29th birthday came into view,” says Lisa Howley on this sunny Thursday evening. “I just thought, okay, lockdown has robbed us of all these marathons, so, what am I going to do instead? And that’s when I came up with the 50/50/50 Challenge…”

Which basically entails Lisa – and her trusty dog, Rio – doing 50 runs and 50 swims every morning for 50 days. Tomorrow, July 23rd, is the very last run, jump and swim. Inspired by Pierce Cahill’s incredible fundraising 5k A Day In May for his beloved Lakers, Ms Howley is taking on her grueling challenge in aid of The Gavin Glynn Foundation.

“I have two friends, Mark Barry and Kevin Marshall, joining me,” says Lisa, “and that has really helped. Because there was definitely some mornings where I thought, ooh, a lie-in would be lovely. But I knew Mark and Kevin would be there. 

“And I knew that Rio would never forgive me too…”

You can donate to this incredible feat right about here, and find out about the King Of Greystones here.