He just blew in from the Windy City! You need big shoulders in the city of Chicago, well we've got just the guy . John catches up with Steven Watt a.k.a. Watty, a.k.a. Stevie Boy and his adequate shoulders live from Illinois, shooting from the hip on his Chicago Marathon experience.

Steven headed to Chicago looking to secure his 5th star of the 6 World Marathon Majors. It wasn't the quite the journey Steven had planned. His 2023, beset by injury, forcing him to suss out and plan how he may have to walk parts or even all of the Chicago course.

So what do you do? You could suck it up and do just that, pick up the medal and your 5th star, it's the same medal if you walk, run, shuffle or crawl afterall!

Or...you could continue to maintain your fitness even if you can't run the miles you would in a standard marathon training block. How do you do that? You swim, you cycle, you join the gym, you change your mindset, you become stronger, resilient and focused. Guess what Stevie Boy chose to do?

This post marathon catch-up took place two days after what tuned out to be an almost perfectly executed 26.2 miles given the circumstances building up to Steven's ChirCarGo adventure.

It's a warts and all breakdown (cos that's how we roll at YHRF) of the travel, sleep, race build-up, the run, the finish, the highs, the lows. the buddies and the aftermath, it's just what you'd expect from Stevie Boy and JC.

The food...well, we're waiting on a separate update on that spectacle and watch out for our spin off Young Hearts Eat Free Podcast starting soon ;-), you'll be able to check out our socials for the culinary delights of What Watty ate in ChirCarGo!

Steven was joined by Paul Stoddart and Allan Carr for his Chicago trip, Allan continues to raise funds for the Kano Foundation and his fundraising link remains open here https://justgiving.com/page/allan-carr-1691697784846?fbclid=IwAR3AwHGpjCXy6Bls63lpdlv4nbkIlGNlMIMQYxSZZ8nh1-y9n85h72VO104