Why ‘Half-Rust’?

Rust: what happens when you leave Iron (like an Ironman, geddit) in sub-optimal conditions for too long. This is what I felt had happened to me for years, and I’d started falling apart as a result.

Half: as it turned out, the process wasn’t complete, I hadn’t entirely degraded. The blog was me coming to terms with the possibility of being flawed but also not being 100% gone because of that.

Bonus points – because it sounds cool.

Where did you learn to write?

I was a massive dork at school, and while maths was the thing that I usually got picked out for, by my later school days it was more English and creative writing that held what little interest I had left to give. On top of that, I wrote a lot to pass the time when I was signed off of work because of depression, and was a social outcast with no-one to help me pass the time. I’ve never had any formal training as a writer, nor have I ever felt I needed it. Writing is a lot like running: if you do lots of it, funnily enough, you’ll become better at it.

Are you going to fundraise again next year?

No. To be honest I don’t like fundraising, it makes me feel deeply uncomfortable. I could deal with it for the Maytree because it was linked to my own personal story and there was a genuine emotional investment there; but at the same time, it was a very one-off thing and I think it’d lose something if I did it for every big race from here on out. That particular part of the story is over, and I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who chose to be a part of it.

When are you going to get with the times and start vlogging?

Oh fuck off.