Ex-GB Runner in Weight-loss Bet With Some Old Training Partners.
COLIN McCOURT has been thrown a challenge by his friends to break 16 minutes for 5km during 2017. His prize for doing so is £1700. His punishment for failing is to have all their names tattooed on to his body, writes Jason Henderson.
Breaking 16 minutes for 5km wouldn’t usually be a problem for a man who won the 1500m at the 2010 European Team Championships and who has a PB of 3:37.06 for that distance. He is still aged only 32 as well.
The reason the goal is so difficult, though, is that he has ballooned to 94kg (14st 11lb) since retiring from athletics in 2012.
A 17-strong group of friends including fellow GB internationals Ross Murray, Andrew Osagie and Andy Vernon are ready to cough up £100 each if McCourt succeeds in cracking 16 minutes this year. But if he fails then he must tattoo all their names on to his body.
“My big weakness is pizza,” he says, “I could eat it all day, every day, and I love a beer as well.”
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