Our Team

About Sam

Sam has enjoyed participating in exercise and sport in a variety of forms since an early age. In fact, she can still vividly remember some of the sports days and netball matches from her time at primary school. Over the years she has played netball, scuba-dived, climbed, kayaked, ran, biked and swam.

She has competed in several London Marathons on both the Good for Age and Championship starts, raced mountain marathons and competed in half and full Ironman triathlons. Having returned to road running as a member of BodyFit Cumbria Running Club, Sam is aiming to achieve the nationally recognised Gold Star age group standard as set out by the Road Runners Club.

More recently, Sam has taken up rowing with Lakeland Rowing Club, competing in both the single scull and double scull. She has competed at international 'Masters' level and has won three world gold medals for rowing in the double scull with rowing partner Nick Cowan.

Sam is the driving force behind BodyFit Cumbria but has the very able support of her husband Geoff who does a brilliant job with the website as well as being a keen athlete himself. In addition to Sam, BodyFit Cumbria has Hazel Davies and Tony Jewell who offer voluntary coaching to the BodyFit Running Classes.

About Hazel

Hazel has been a regular member of the BodyFit Running and Core classes since 2009 and like Sam is a member of BodyFit Cumbria Running Club. Hazel is a qualified Coach in Running Fitness specialising in endurance running. She volunteers with our BodyFit Running Classes. Hazel works locally as a nurse and specialises in minor injuries. She lives in Cockermouth, with husband Mike, sons Callum and Zak. Hazel and Sam frequently train together, helping each other to achieve their athletic goals.

About Tony

Tony is a native Cumbrian, born in Whitehaven and his first involvement in athletics was in 1962. Encouraged by his father, he competed at handicap sprint events and junior fell races at shows around the county. This continued to 1967, when at sixteen he started work at Sellafield. In the early 1970s he kept fit by cycling and in 1976 when distance running was becoming more popular he joined the Cumberland Fell Runners Association (CFRA).

As well as competing on the fell, Tony also took up road races with 10 milers and marathons being favourite distances. In the early 1980s, Tony competed in the Cockermouth, Windermere and Bolton marathons. In 1985 he completed the London Marathon in 3 hours 2 minutes 50 seconds.

In 1986, Cumberland Fell Runners was formed from the old CFRA, and Tony being on the committee proposed that any juniors could join free of charge with the aim of encouraging youngsters to take part in the sport of fell running. At the time, Tony's children were young and he hoped they would take up fell running. His legacy continues today, as his grandchildren now fell run.

In 1988, Tony was part of a team that helped Joss Naylor on one of his epic charity runs around all the 'Lakes, Meres and Waters of the Lake District', a fantastic achievement and a very memorable three days.

Tony has been running with BodyFit since 2013 and enjoys the structured training. On retiring from Sellafield after 47 years, he has become interested in coaching and now has a regular voluntary role with the BodyFit Cumbria Running Classes; passing on his coaching advice to all levels of runners from complete beginners to more seasoned runners.

Tony's aim for the next few years is to compete well locally as a Vet 70 and to complete a half marathon in under 2 hours. Tony also enjoys parkruns and has achieved his 200 parkrun milestone.