Jan Carver started out doing a 10,000 a day step challenge and that led to a couch to 5 km run then a 10 km and the next thing Jan knew she was doing marathons.
After 4 marathons Jan has decided to do the London marathon this year to make it number 5. Our very own Diane met Jan through something called the K times 365 project
in 2014. This group promotes staying active for 365 days preferably outside. Jan also talks to us about how for the first 12 weeks of running she only ran in the dark because she lacked confidence and didn't want anyone to see her. Soon that changed and as Jan gained more confidence she would run more and more. In 2018 Jan and her husband ran in a 100 miler, 24-hour team relay and on the last 10-mile lap they ran together. This event is named the Grim Reaper and the incredible thing is her longest race was a half marathon at this time, amazing. Now Jan runs with her run club and they meet on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and Wednesdays are now her non-negotiables, she seldom misses a run with her group.
But Jan does, even more, she is now certified as a run coach and helps others achieve their goals, plus she leads new runners in couch to 5k's. Mental health is very big in her running group
and they connect mental health and running health together. With Covid, this is even more of a thing so running is very important to Jan. In order to help control some of her own anxiety Jan would go and sleep outside in a tent or hammock just to get away from everything. This helps Jan to feel less cabin fever and helps her to connect more with the outdoors. Put in some rock climbing and everything else that she does and it's easy to see Jan is a very motivated individual.