Our very own sports massage therapist, Paul Kernick, took great pleasure in treating the winner of the Leeds half marathon last Sunday.
A Bachelor of Experience and Wellness Management, Paul offered both pre- and post-event massages to the runners from the Physio Med stand at the event’s main marquee.
Before the race, Paul was approached by a runner who wanted to have his legs loosened up for the race. As a specialist in deep tissue massage and postural assessment, Paul gave the runner a 10-minute massage in order to warm up his calves, hamstrings and quads before wishing him well and sending him on his way.
Astonishingly, less than two hours later, the grateful runner returned.
Paul said: “Me and the other therapists looked at each other with amazement as he was the only runner who had arrived so early. Now, having just run a half marathon, he was back at our stand looking like he hadn’t even broken a sweat!”
It turned out the man was a Kenyan professional runner, who won the Leeds half marathon in 2017.
“He remembered me from earlier and thanked me again for the massage. He then told me he’d completed the race in 1:08 and was the overall winner of the race this year too! Needless to say, I took it as a great honour and achievement to have given the winner a massage before the race.”
Paul’s day wasn’t finished there, however, as he went on to massage between 40 and 50 more runners over a six-hour period.
Paul added: “Although I was fairly tired come the end of the day, all the runners were very kind and I was very happy to have been a part of the event.”
