Meet our next three colleagues, Michael, Zara, Christian and Emeline who have signed up to take on this year’s Ipswich Half Marathon!
Michael
Michael is Head of Active Ipswich who certainly lives an active life! In his spare time, Michael enjoys playing golf and fishing and is also a Director and Vice Chair of Soham Town Rangers Football club and helps coach one of the women’s football teams. Having always been relatively fit from playing football all his life this will be Michael’s first running challenge!
“ I have been wanting to do a fitness challenge for some time now, partly to test myself and partly to raise money for a charity that has deep ties to my personal life. This is a great opportunity to do both.”
Training for Michael has gone well so far keeping consistent with regular 5kms and building on the longer distances over the weekend. The challenge for Michael is beyond just the race itself but overcoming the challenges that come with training such a distance.
Zara
Zara is 23 year olds and works as a Community Participation Officer at IBC. A seasoned runner, Zara started running when she was just 5 years old and started competing in school cross-country events and local races at the age of 10. From leaving school Zara took a break from running but rediscovered her passion for the sport again in 2024. Since then running has been a consistent part of Zara’s life alongside her passion in Pilates and has achieved some of her proudest racing moments in 2025, finishing 2nd Female at the Colchester 10K and 3rd Female overall in the Friday 5 Series!
After such fantastic results unfortunately Zara picked up a knee injury in December following the Valencia Marathon which led to her withdrawing from this year’s Cambridge Half Marathon in March. Zara decided to set a new challenge and sign up for the Ipswich Half Marathon to give her new direction and focus coming back from injury. Training has since been going well and she has learn to adjust her training accordingly and focus on rebuilding her fitness gradually. Despite the setbacks from injury Zara is working towards an incredible PB and sub 1 hour and 45 minute race!
“My aim is to achieve a personal best, although I’m realistic about the challenges of rebuilding my fitness after time away from full training. More than anything, I’m looking forward to enjoying the race, seeing how far I’ve come, and continuing my journey back to full fitness.”
Christian
Christian is a 24 year old Duty Supervisor at Ipswich Fit. With an active lifestyle, Christian is a keen athlete regularly working out and is an active member of the Judo Club but admits the Ipswich Half Marathon will be a personal challenge and self-achievement with not a huge amount of experience in running. Despite this Christian did run 150km for Movember back in 2023! Outside of fitness, Christian enjoys reading and spending time with his friends and family.
“I wanted to challenge myself physically and mentally and get back into a healthy lifestyle where fitness is a much more prominent part of my life.”
Training is going well for Christian, running every other day, varying the levels of intensity and gradually increasing his mileage as the days go by. He also enjoys incorporating a Parkrun to his training on a Saturday! With this Christian hopes to complete the race in a very respectful time of 2 hours 15 minutes for not only his first Half Marathon, but race!
Emeline
Emeline describes herself as competitive, compassionate and, in the words of her friends, “divalicious”. Growing up with three brothers gave her a natural winner’s mindset, although she promises her competitive side is mostly reserved for family! Having joined Ipswich Borough Council less than a year ago to pursue her passion for marketing and PR, Emeline decided it was also time to take on a new personal challenge. Despite never considering herself a runner, she spotted the Ipswich Half Marathon opportunity in Staff News and thought, “Why not?” With this being her first race since secondary school P.E., Emeline’s goal is refreshingly simple: make it to the finish line and have fun along the way.
The Journey Ahead
Each of our runners is approaching the Ipswich Half Marathon from a different angle — some are time focused, some are about challenging the body and mind, whilst others want to challenge themselves with an entirely new experience. We look forward to watching the growth of our colleagues training and wish them every luck for their big adventure ahead.