From marathons to best selling books - how running changed Hannah Phillips' life
'No Run Intended' author went from police-worrying balaclava runner to marathoner facing down miscarriage and mental health issues along the way
From a chance encounter with a “fat girl” wearing the same top as her to coping with the heartbreak of miscarriage, Hannah Phillips’ life has been changed and shaped by running.
In the decade since she first went for a run wearing a balaclava to avoid being recognised, Hannah has becoming a best selling author, run a marathon and worked with Welsh Athletics.
And it’s all down to running.
“Running in engrained in me now,” she said.
Things weren’t always that way.
Hannah was in her mid-20s and hadn’t run since PE at school, when on a night out she had a chance encounter that catapulted her into the world of running.
It was with herself. Or more accurately, her reflection.
“I’ve got three girls now,” she said, “and we don’t say the word fat, but when I was an arrogant, 20-odd year old, and not a very nice person apparently, we were in a pub in Cardiff and I said to [her now husband] Scott, ‘that fat girl’s got my top on’.
“I would never say something like that normally. I don’t know why I said it that night.
“By the time I realised said girl had the same jeans and highlights as me, and it was actually a mirror, I was quite distraught - partly because I was a horrible person, but mainly because I had put so much weight on.
“We went home straight away that night. I was really upset and I decided I was going to run.”
Hannah knew other people in her home town of Merthyr Tydfil who ran and still had a great social life, so it seemed obvious to give the sport a go.
Despite having “not moved since PE, circa-1996,” she set off a couple of nights later to run round the whole of Merthyr.
But running came with unexpected consequences.
“I went in Scott’s balaclava because I was so embarrassed because of my weight gain,” she said.
“And the police stopped me, and picked me up, because they thought I was pinching something.
“I don’t know if anyone else has run round Merthyr in a balaclava, but it’s frowned upon.”
Despite her brush with the law she made it home: “I was really sweaty and had to lie on the floor.
“Scott said, ‘that’s it then, you’re not going to do that again,’ and I was ‘you’d love that, you’d love me not to go again’.
“And that’s how it started.”
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Hannah said a natural stubborn streak pushed her to go out again and again until she “cracked” running.
“In my head, as long as I got three miles under my belt at some point I would have been happy.
“But I signed up for Cardiff Half. A girl I went to school with had done it, and I thought if she had then I could.
“I always say to people that you definitely need a goal, especially if you are not used to sport. If you have a goal, the habit becomes more integral to your life.”
After about ten weeks training, she successfully completed the Cardiff Half and - feeling great and having lost a bit of weight - was ready for new challenges.
But although her running was starting to improve, Hannah and Scott had bigger problems to take on.
The couple were trying for a baby, but had suffered several miscarriages.
“I’m always really vocal now about the fact that I started for weight loss, but I maintained for very different reasons,” Hannah told the Running Tales Podcast.
“While my body was failing there [having a baby], it was still succeeding running. I felt like I was achieving things and had an element of control.
“I still credit running for getting me through some of the darkest times.
“We were so desperate for a baby, but it was completely out of our control and it was a horrible, horrible place to be.”
After another miscarriage Hannah threw herself out on a run to help cope with the pain.
“It was snowing, and I remember thinking ‘look what you are doing. Everything else is going wrong, but you can still do this. You’re body is ok’.
“And I started to get kinder to myself because of running. Running has changed my life massively, and I’m a really, really big advocate for it.
“I credit it for saving my life. I credit it for getting me through things.
“I just wish people could get past that discomfort bit to realise it opens so many doors.”
And then something “absolutely perfect” happened - Hannah got pregnant again in 2014 and she gave birth to a little girl.
But a year later, she sadly lost another baby: “I had the most horrible miscarriage, and I was hospitalised.
“I was in the hospital bed that night, thinking ‘you’ve literally got everything you want at home and you’ve still got yourself in this mess, this has got to stop’.
“That night I applied to run the London Marathon for Bliss, a neonatal charity which looks after babies born too small, too soon or too sick.
“I thought I would run a marathon and I would be way too tired to have sex, and so wouldn’t get pregnant.”
Hannah decided that to raise money for Bliss she would write a book about her experiences running and her struggles to have children.
The idea was that friends and family would buy the book, called ‘No Run Intended,’ and after reading it would “feel so sorry for me that they would sponsor me”.
Once again, running changed everything.
When the book was published in 2016, it unexpectedly shot to the top of Amazon’s bestseller list.
Not only did it raise more than enough money for Bliss, it helped earn Hannah a new job with Welsh Athletics, working in social running provision for Run Wales.
A second book, ‘Run Intended,’ came out after the marathon, and a third about stopping drinking, and how that journey was similar to starting running, is in the pipeline.
“After that the pressure had gone. I was running and everything else slotted in to place,” she said.
“When I got pregnant with my middle daughter, we couldn’t get over that I was pregnant.
“We said historically it doesn’t work out, so lets see what happens. And it worked out. We had Kiki in 2020 and then in 2022 we had another one.
“If anybody watched that journey - which lots of people did as I was really vocal about it in the early days - it was unbelievable.
“Running obviously played a part as I was much healthier and happier. And happier is the key with running.”
Hannah had one more hurdle to overcome though - and this time running wasn’t able to help.
In 2021, she encountered mental health issues which would reshape her life again.
“I got quite poorly to the point where I didn’t have anywhere to turn. I had gone to the doctors, and explained I was running and trying to eat healthily.
“I had given up alcohol completely but I still felt really poorly.”
At the time she was still working for Welsh Athletics and had built a relationship with a charity called Big Moose, which helps people with mental health problems through therapy and early intervention.
When Hannah turned up for a meeting with them, they noticed something wasn’t right and offered her free therapy.
“I said ‘use it on someone who needs it’ but I had been on my knees a couple of days before saying ‘I can’t carry on, I am done with this world,’” she told Running Tales.
“It’s an awful, awful place to be. And they marketed it very cleverly, said we’ve got this provision, we’d love to know your thoughts on it, why don’t you have some therapy and you can talk through it and give us some ideas if it doesn’t work.
“A couple of days later a guy called me and I absolutely broke down. I only had four hours of therapy but it changed everything. I credit that with saving my life and changing my life.
“Running has saved my life a couple of times but it didn’t massively change anything. I’d got to a point where I couldn’t do any more running.
“The therapy looked at my resources, and running came into them massively. My therapist said look what you’ve done, look what you’ve achieved.
“The fact I’ve got people out there running was massive and I just wanted to give something back. I’ve just done my diploma in psychotherapy for that reason.
“When I die, whoever gets up at my funeral, they are going to say she ran marathons and she got a lot of people out there, and that’s a lovely thought.”
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Is this Hannah Amy Phillips from OCAD University (Canada) in 2013 who lives in Wales? Curious if it is, if so you were so rude to me pretending to be my friend and thinking you were above me. I demand an apology.