Great South Run 2023: Portsmouth firefighter to take on for the race for the first time in his full kit

James Oatley will be carrying the bulky apparatus, weighing around 15kg, as he takes on the 10 mile run around Portsmouth this Sunday.

An experienced runner, James decided to take part in this year’s event after seeing a friend who works for Tonic – Music for Mental Health put a post on social media looking for people to fundraise for them.

The 44-year-old from Cosham said: “I’ve never done the Great South Run before, but then I saw my friend, Luke Fuller”, head of fundraising operations for Tonic, “put something out asking for people to run it for the charity.

"I’ve heard from others who’ve done it that it’s a good event.

"I go to the gym twice a day and do quite a lot of running, but I thought because I’m a bit competitive and a fitness freak, let’s step it up a bit and do something a bit different."

It wasn’t just because of his friend – the charity is a cause close to James’ heart.

"Because of the work we do, we can see a lot of awful things and go through some difficult situations, so a lot of firefighters do have mental health problems. I thought that if I’m going to do it for a charity, then one linked to mental heath is the perfect cause.”

He’s tried a couple of training runs around part of the course in Southsea in the full kit – one of five miles and one of seven-and-a-half miles

"Doing it like this, at least there’s no pressure to finish in a good time, I just need to focus on finishing! I can sort of plod around the course.

"Both of those training runs turned out to be really hot days – it was quite tough, not just because of the heat but also with other people out and about. At least on the day we’ll all be going in the same direction!

"I did the seven-and-a-half mile run in an hour and 18 minutes, so I’m hoping to complete it in about an hour and 45 minutes.”

Donate to James’ efforts at justgiving.com/fundraising/james-oatley.