The defining moment of my sporting career came when I was eight or nine. I may not remember the exact year, but it was a moment that changed my life.
Growing up in rural northern England I naturally spent a lot of time outside, mostly kicking a football around with my best friend who lived next door and who was six months older. I was not challenging for many race wins at school sports days, but we would play for hours and I cherished a little trophy the Lincolnshire Football Association gave me after a five-day training course from which I returned home and took great delight in dribbling the ball around my friend until it got too dark for us to see each other. I had been considered the most improved player in my age group.
A normal childhood then. That was until my primary school decided I should not be part of the football team any more because of my asthma. Asthma is a condition that affects my lungs, inflaming my airways if I attempt to exercise without first taking medication.
All I need to do, however, is take an inhaler before any physical activity and I have the same lung capacity as anyone else. I have never, touch wood, suffered an asthma attack or had any difficulties other than needing to take a break if I do too much when I've forgotten my inhaler.
Monday nights after school used to be football training night. For me it then became art club night, where I learnt how to use origami to make stars and buildings. I did master several different techniques for paper airplanes, but my dreams of emulating Gary Lineker or Paul Gascoigne (my footballing heroes growing up, thanks to the 1990 World Cup finals) were over.
There was a legacy for me as I ended up playing football much less, and that I did play was without the benefit of coaching. I was never going to be a top player, but the decision to stop me playing still riles me to this day.
Eventually it clicked to me that they were so wrong, that I could be as athletic as anyone else. I found myself playing in and captaining a men's football team in my teens and then also captaining a work's five-a-side team. I took up running, as a sport I was actually better suited to, in my early 20s.
I have since completed four half marathons, including the one in Ras al Khaimah last year. My motivation is to prove my old teachers wrong. It is close to 20 years ago, but I remember Mrs Walker telling me it in the cloakroom like it was yesterday.
There are many great sporting role models who have asthma. Sir Ian Botham is a favourite of mine, he captained England at cricket - a sport in which he is recognised as one of the greats - and also played for my hometown football team Scunthorpe United inbetween the English cricket season.
It is also prevalent in athletics. I chose distance running, and was surprised to learn greats like Paula Radcliffe and Haile Gebrselassie have it. Radcliffe can run a marathon in 2hrs 15min 25secs, so it clearly doesn't slow her down.
In a study at the 1996 Olympic Games it was shown that 15 per cent of competitors had diagnosed asthma. In the UK, where I am from, it affects six per cent of people and in the US seven per cent, so in elite athletics it is more common than in the general population.
Maybe, just maybe, people like Radcliffe and Gebrselassie push harder because they suffer from exercise-enduced asthma like me. There is no better motivator than beating it, and why I will be in Ras al Khaimah again in two weeks time.
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