#whywerun - Matthew Walters

We would like to welcome and introduce Matthew Walters as part of our passionate team of Ambassadors. Matthew hails from the UK and is currently studying at Mac-Nutrition Uni to become a MNU certified nutritionist. Along with that, Matthew is the Founder of Runspire, an online community of inspiring people motivated to connect runners and bring others together. This is what we are all about at Fractel so we are stoked to have someone like Matthew representing us..

Matthew Walters | Runner | Entrepreneur | Community

Words & Images: Matthew Walters

My name is Matthew Walters and I’m a 25-year-old from England. I found my passion for running accidentally. I always enjoyed running when training while playing football for several years but decided I wanted to try my hand at a half marathon. Believe it or not, it wasn’t something I thought I’d continue to do once I’d completed the event.. Not long after the half I got injured during a football match which meant I was destined for the side-lines for a while. I was still able to mindfully jog on it and I continued running and completed a couple of 10ks and soon decided to quite football and take up running full-time. I quickly got the bug and it became a huge passion of mine. 

Running isn’t always easy.. There are days where I have little motivation to go out. Something that gets me out the door and keeps me going is goal setting. I hugely enjoy setting a goal and achieving it either big or small! To date I have completed a number of 10ks and half marathons events and it continues to grow. I’ve also ran one marathon and an ultra-marathon (50k) which I managed to win.

Winning the 50k race is my biggest achievement to date. It opened a whole new world of running for me. Road running was all I really knew but having unearthed the trail scene, it adds a different vibe to running that I really enjoy.

My next goal is to run a sub 3 marathon which will I'll attempt in April 2020. After that I’m looking at doing another ultra-marathon. I think something a little further than 50k to push the boundaries and see what I’m capable of. In the near future I hope to improve my times across some shorter distances and build up that speed.

I am also the Founder of Runspire (@run_spire) which is an online running community. As a community we aim to inspire, motivate and educate others. We are hugely dedicated to connecting people and bringing runners together. We believe that people meeting other like-minded people can be very beneficial, especially in the running community. It makes running much more inviting when you have someone to connect with and share your story, achievements and journey with. Not everyone has access to a club or has someone to run with.. Having people to talk to in a private Facebook group can really help with motivation. Being able to share their races/training with people that care is an amazing thing to be able to do.  

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To celebrate our partnership with Matthew and also Fractel launching in the UK, we are offering readers 15% off store-wide using the code "RUNSPIRE" at checkout. AVAILABLE HERE

You can follow Matthew on Instagram HERE