Whilst Solinear is more commonly known for offering architectural inspiration, today we’re offering a different kind of inspiration…
Andy is our design manager, one of Solinear’s longest-serving employees and already an award-winner as part of the Solinear team but he’s also proving to be a successful, medal-winning, long-distance runner.
He’s come a long way over the past 12 months as Andy readily admits
“I started running about a year ago and could only run for about 30 seconds before turning into a sweaty out-of-breath mess…
But I persevered and can now run a half-marathon in just under two hours, which I’m very proud of.”
To put this into perspective, the fastest half-marathon was completed in around 57 minutes (at time of blog publication) by 24-year-old Ugandan, Jacob Kiplimo. Kiplimo has been a professional athlete since the age of 15 and would regularly run to school over a distance of 5km.
Andy has discovered his passion for running later in life and…ahem…let’s just say, he’s got a few years on Kiplimo. Which makes this feat all the more impressive. It’s also worth noting that a respectable half-marathon time is considered to be around the 1 hour 50 minute mark across all ages, genders and abilities.
Andy is trying to cram (running pun for those who remember athletic heroes of the 1980’s) in as many half-marathons as possible in the lead up to the Yorkshire Marathon on 19th October 2025, in his hometown of York.
As part of his preparation for the big event, he’s completed four long-distance events and numerous marathon distance (26 miles 385 yards) training runs.
Andy ran the Sheffield and Leeds half-marathons – organised by Jane Tomlinson’s ‘Run For All’, which raises money for the Rob Burrow Centre for Motor Neurone Disease Appeal, so he’s also helping good causes along the way.
He found the Leeds half-marathon particularly gruelling due to the stifling heat (unfortunately it’s not possible to install solar shading around an entire marathon route) but, as Andy said “…the event was well organised with plenty of water and cooling stations, and the crowd was insane!”. Cheers from the throng lining the routes make all the difference for those pushing their bodies to the limits.
Of course, the rest of the Solinear team gives him a lot of encouragement and support and looks forward to congratulating him on his next conquest.
The A J Bell Great North Run held in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne in September, will be Andy’s next half-marathon – he’ll be joining 59,999 other participants, and running to raise money for the British Heart Foundation.
With a number of long-distance runs and half-marathons under his belt, along with the Yorkshire Marathon in October, his ultimate ambition is to run the London Marathon and participate in ultra running (50km+).
Just over a year ago, Andy would probably have never imagined he’d be getting up early on a weekend to go running but now he enjoys participating in his local park run every Saturday morning.
He says “It’s really popular” and encourages anyone who wants to improve their physical, as well as mental, wellbeing to check out the park run website for more details of park runs in your area.
