At Stone Master Marathoners we are lucky to have a wealth of experience to call upon. There are numerous members who have completed hundreds of races of all distances from 1 mile to 100 miles and in some cases over 100 marathons.

So you are always able to find advice whilst out on a club run or when enjoying a social event with the club.

Also within the club there are a number of members who have undertook various courses with England Athletics. LIRF – Leadership in Running Fitness and we are always looking for others who would be interested to help with leading some of the club runs when our regular run leaders are unavailable.

In addition to the run leaders we also have two qualified coaches who have attained the CIRF qualifications from England Athletics (Coach in Running Fitness) an intensive coaching course.

Paul Phillips

I got into running quite late after being a keen footballer and cricketer for the local teams in Stone but finding time limited due to family commitments I decided to enter the Stafford Half Marathon back in 2012. (At the time running appeared to take up a lot less of my time than either of my previous sports – little did I know!!)

After this first race I decided that running might be the hobby for me, so joined Stone Master Marathoners in 2012 ish. Within a few months I’d taken up the role as Vice Captain and was soon on the committee and as is normal with SMM encouraged to ‘help’ out more with club runs and coaching leading to doing the LIRF course in 2015/6. This was quickly followed by doing the full coaching CIRF course and you will now find me ‘encouraging’ on the club interval sessions on a Tuesday and when fit I will be found on plenty of club runs to offer support and advice for your running journey.

Email – Paul – Coach

Michael Beasley

I am a relatively new comer to running completing my first marathon in 2015 and joining SMM in October 2017. I started running after friends of a similar age experienced physical health problems so out of a sense of recognition of my own poor physical health I started running. As a learning disability nurse working in an NHS mental health trust, I was more than aware not only of the physical benefits of running but also the positive impact running can have on an individual’s mental health.

I have completed the Leadership in Running Fitness (LiRF) course with England Athletics and I am now qualified as a run leader and in 2023 I also completed the CIRF Coaching course. I have also completed a ‘Guide Runner’ course again with England Athletics to allow me to guide visually impaired runners. I also enjoy helping others meet their running goals by pacing from 5K to marathon distance.

My other role within the club is ‘Mental Health Ambassador’ with the objective to work within our running club to support the mental well-being of all members.

Don’t hesitate to contact me regarding the coaching or my other role, I’ll do my best to answer your questions.