Mark Shepherd is self proclaimed British. He has a Scottish accent / Welsh heritage and lives in the West Midlands
His nickname of Gobi (pronounced Gobby) how where why?
Mark talks about childhood sport, Football mad and Roller Hockey.
He talks about where it went wrong and him going off the rails with drink and has now been alcohol free for 33 years.
Mark joined the army at 18 for 1 year 234 days - only thing he achieved was sub 8 mins for 1.5 miles and a 16.37 5km
Mark played Semi Pro (low level) football at points in his 20s, his career ended when he turned his knee the wrong way.
He has been a coach since he was 20 and understands how to break things down.
Mark was involved in Roller Hockey to international level as a player and a coach.
Mark is a qualified personal trainer and a UKA level 2 speed and endurance coach - no formal tri or cycling qualifications.
Marks first Tri was Corporate games in Aberdeen in 1996, he " couldn't swim, hired an MTB and ran like a train"
Mark ran his first marathon 1997 - tore a hamstring and hobbled in around 4hrs
His a fear of water -stemming from nearly drowning as a kid and his damaged shoulders keeps him away from Triathlon, although he has done his share.
Marks first proper Tri - was Newbury in 2001, he has done this twice and finished second twice and when you understand how bad he claims his swimming is, it shows you how good his running and biking are and then you understand why he prefers duathlon.
Mark has done a number of half ironman(70.3).
He has been the Welsh ultra distance marathon champion.
Mark Broke a leg and got back on the bike in rehab and after a few triathlons and then decided that he would try and qualify in 2010 and 2011 for worlds and Euros.
After the Worlds 2011 Mark decided to go back to running and time trials. after another broken leg he became a cyclist until was persuaded to do some pace making for another athlete at 10k and through that by 2014 he was in such good shape he decided to go back to triathlon and duathlon where he finished 2nd overall in Newbury tri twice in a row and won the local duathlon outright.
Somewhere in all this Mark made the decision that as a V50 he would go to the Agegroup Euros and Worlds so did some qualifiers as training, did well. Bronze at British AG champs in 2017 and 18 - DNF in 2019 with leg issues while at the sharp end.
2020 Punta Umbria Spain - Mark tells us he went to win and how disappointed he was with 6th and the shock of being dropped running sub 17 min 5km pace. ( he cursed the bike course for offering nothing to the cyclist and that was proved.)
As well as training and racing Mark coaches a number of Athletes including the podcasts previous age groupers Yiannis Christodoulou episode 9 and Christina Dove episode 12
We really enjoyed this conversation with a very Knowledgable guy and hope you do too.
Follow Mark on Instagram @markshepherd
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Website is : agegroupmultisportpodcast.buzzsprout.com
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