Alcohol-addicted Bristol man runs 10,000 every day for a year

A man who five years ago was hospitalized for addiction problems will mark a year of running 10,000 every day next month.

Kieron Brosnan, 36, from Bristol, spent 11 months running for at least an hour a day, including in several different countries and even in the middle of the night.

He said he never planned to do such a challenge and came up with it after finding himself living in an emergency shelter and going into A&E asking for help to drink.

Describing his running efforts, Mr Brosnan said he was “beaten up mentally and physically again, but in a different, more positive way”.

But while running has now become a big part of his daily life, Mr Brosnan said his recovery “didn’t start by swapping a pint for a 10,000 run” and he greatly deserves the help of a support group .

Mr Brosnan said that by July 2019 his drinking was “causing a lot of problems with jobs and relationships” and after six months of heavy drinking he was admitted to hospital for medical detox.

“I had to drink through a straw because I couldn’t hold a glass without spilling it, that’s the physical effect of withdrawal,” he said.

But with the help of medical professionals and her support group, five years on she is on the mend and is about to celebrate a year of running 10,000 a day.

“The timing of all of this was not planned or what I had in mind when I started the challenge,” he said.

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Mr Brosnan was originally inspired to run by someone he followed on Instagram who was seven months into his own 10,000 a day challenge.

Soon he found himself going out around Bristol every day, setting himself a number of rules including ‘have fun’ and ‘don’t get hurt’.

“I definitely broke both of them,” he said, adding that he “hit a wall” around the six-month mark, but which he was able to overcome.

His only rules were that he had to complete the run in one go and he had to at least start the run before midnight for it to count for the day.

“If I had planned it, I probably would have said to myself ‘you have to get up at 6am every day and do it before work’, but I had to really fit it into my life,” he said .

The approach saw him getting out of bed one evening to complete runs and even leaving late at night for Malaysia after a 14-hour flight.

As he nears the end of his efforts, Mr Brosnan encouraged people to donate to the FareShare charity.

He volunteered for the chair in 2020 towards the start of the recovery, taking surplus “good to eat” food that would otherwise have gone to waste to more than 47,000 people in the region.

“I’ve seen the amazing work they do in supporting people and the community, including providing support and opportunities for young people to get into work,” he said.

FareShare South West CEO Lucy Bearn described Mr Bronson as “a wonderful ambassador for the charity”.

“He is so passionate about supporting others,” she added.

“He is truly an inspiration.”