Rory Coleman – Keynote Speaker

1100 marathons and 25 years on from a ‘New Years Resolution’ made to clean up his life, Rory Coleman has really earned the name ‘Marathon Man’. On January 5th 1994, the 40-a-day smoker and hardened drinker managed to run just 100 metres. Far from being disheartened, he felt ecstatic as he’d found a way to clean up his act and live the rest of his life to the full… nicotine and alcohol free. In just three months he lost three stone in weight and ran a halfmarathon, completing his first full marathon later that same year.

Next was the London Marathon in April 1995. Rory Coleman enjoyed it so much that he ran one the following weekend… and the one after that… and has actually run a marathon every week since. To up the challenge, the distances became longer and the terrain became tougher, including the Grand Union Canal Race (145 miles) and the Marathon des Sables (branded ’The World’s Toughest Footrace’) in 1999. Next on the horizon were a number of one-off challenges including nine distance Guinness World Records for running on treadmills (101.3 miles in 24 hours is just one of them) and megaday races such as the Flora 1000 Mile Challenge in 2003, London to Lisbon for Euro 2004 and Stoptober in 2013.

In 2007, after a long career in Design and Print Sales, Rory Coleman made his passion his business and qualified as an Advanced Personal Trainer. Since then he has built a world-wide client base and has trained many celebrity clients, including Sir Ranulph Fiennes, BBC TV’s Helen Skelton. He is now the UK’s Leading ULTRA-marathon Coach and is regularly featured on the TV and in the Press and Running Magazines as well as being invited to speak to businesses about ’The Process of Change’ In 2016, following the Marathon des Sables, Rory faced his biggest challenge to date after being paralysed with Guillain–Barré Syndrome, an extremely rare auto-immune disease that left him unable to walk and confined to a wheel-chair. He puts his amazing recovery down to being super-fit and having a positive mind-set. Since then he’s completed a further 74 marathons including the Marathon des Sables twice and ran his 1000th marathon at the Robin Hood Marathon on September 24th 2017 surrounded by family and friends.