Josh Mottram: Fund-RACE-ing

Josh Mottram is a 2022 Leaders’ List winner in the Sports, Arts and Entertainment category. As an avid runner, Josh has used his talent to raise over £2000 for charity in the Race the Train event in Caernarfon, and will be doing the Santa Dash with his friend Huw in aid of St. David’s Hospice.

As we spoke with Josh, his enthusiasm and determination shone through. Here is what he had to say about his journey so far:

“This year, I raised money for Conwy Connect for Learning Disabilities by running to beat the train in the 5km Race the Train event in Caernarfon on the 20th of July 2022.

Conwy Connect is a great charity that organizes lots of activities that me and my friends can do together, like disco’s, youth clubs and surfing, and they also give me work opportunities to help me prepare for my future.

I started running with Ian, who is my support worker (but used to be my swimming teacher) at Conwy Park Run about a year ago and really enjoyed it. He wasn’t very happy when I beat him, especially since I ran behind him all the way and then outsprinted him to get a personal best timing of 22 minutes 10 seconds.

This year, we thought it would be fun to participate in the Race the Train event in Caernarfon and raise some money at the same time so that my friends could continue to enjoy the fantastic activities, learning opportunities and work that Conwy Connect organize.

Ian initially thought he could beat me, so I trained hard and so did he, we had a lot of fun training and joking about whether people were team Josh or team Ian (most were team Josh!).

I made lots of friends while fundraising and the Conwy Parkrun family, which I’m proud to be part of, were really supportive and helped me raise so much money. Don Hale, who writes a running blog, even did a piece on my story. I thought it was nice to try to inspire others

I really liked that other people from Conwy Connect also entered the race and I especially liked it that lots of my friends, their families as well as Conwy Connect staff came to support me. I think everyone really enjoyed the steam train ride out to the start of the race.

Everybody was having great fun! I was told that the atmosphere on the train as we raced it back was amazing as everyone was cheering us on. I was also told that they did the most cheering and made the most noise!

The race was hard, but I ran really well and didn’t give up and I eventually managed to beat the train home! What’s more, I smashed my personal best time and finished the 5km run in 21 minutes 18 seconds.

I still like to run at Conwy parkrun and know lots of people there now. We all support one another and encourage each other to do our best. I’m inspired to do another event next year! This time I might do an outdoor swimming challenge and raising some money for Conwy Wales Swimming Club”