#whywerun - Corey Phillpott

Corey Phillpott | Owner of CozFit Strength & Endurance

My introduction into running started at the age of 6 when playing park football with school friends. I never fully understood the effects of running and the various types of running training for all specific sports. I just thought running was running, head our for a  'couple laps' of the oval and you’ll be okay.. Little did I know..
 
It wasn't until I reached the ages 13 - 17 that I actually started looking into fitness seriously. I began to gain a sound knowledge of why athletes train certain ways to meet specific goals as I was playing representative rugby league for the Cronulla Sharks and Illawarra Steelers, so my S&C coaches were guiding us day in and day out.
 
During my days of playing rugby league I had found my new passion. Fitness was something that kept me switched on. I had no interest in school, it just wasn’t for me. In year 11 I decided to leave and take on full-time study to become a personal trainer.
 
Amid those years of studying I went back to playing park football and that is where I fell down the wrong path and almost lost everything. Surrounding myself with the wrong people, drugs and partying I gained around 40kgs and weighed in at 128kgs at my heaviest. This was what ultimately made me lose everything.
 
Mid 2015 I was driving home the next day from a night out, where I pulled over on the side of the road and broke down in tears. I was broken, I thought this was the end with no way out. I made a phone call to my dad. I wasn’t close with my dad at all, we didn’t have a very good relationship when I was growing up, but he was the person I needed most when I hit rock bottom. He changed my life.

The next couple days after that phone call I had packed my bags, my childhood, everything I ever knew and moved from the Sutherland Shire to Penrith. It was a big change, leaving absolutely everyone and everything I ever knew to come out to Western Sydney where I felt so alone.
 
Social media was gone. Facebook, Instagram the lot! It was all gone! I needed time to grow, develop myself and meet new people. This was tough.
 
I got back into my training here and there in the gym and was losing a couple KGs but nothing dramatic. I couldn’t even complete a 1 km run without being gassed!
 
Then it all changed..

My Father is a profound ultra-runner. One morning he woke me up at 4:30am and told me I’m coming for a 21km run with him. I laughed and rolled over. Before I knew it, I was in that car heading up to the infamous Blue Mountains. It was -4 degrees. I finished the half marathon that day. I’m not too sure what kept me going, the fact that it was freezing and I wanted to get back into the car, or the internal drive where I had something to prove to myself. During that run something clicked, I had just hit 'the wall' and knew if I stopped that was it. My body was done but I just kept on moving, one leg in front of the other until I had that car in my sight.

After a year of running and training in the gym consistently, I had dropped 30kgs and I had entered my first ultra, Ultra Trail Australia 50km. Since then I have completed multiple Ultra events and am currently looking at doing my first ‘official’ 100km race in July. Will a 100 miler be on the cards in 2021? I think so!
 
I also 'run' a successful coaching business called CozFit Strength and Endurance. We have an awesome community of athletes looking to test their limits week in and week out and improve focus on all aspects of life.
 

This is my journey. Ultimately, I run for myself. Running has changed my life and the community I am a part of in the magical Blue Mountains is something else. I run for the escape, for the pain, the hurt and for the growth it brings to myself and others. Through the training sessions I put myself through and the races I run I hope that I can inspire others to make a change in their life. I hope it makes people think ‘hey if he can do it, why can’t I?’. Or simply just motivate people to push that little more.

 You can follow Corey and CozFit on Instagram HERE