A YOUNG athlete got to meet one of his ideals when Joss Naylor met with members of the Windermere ladies running club.
Joss Naylor, MBE, has set numerous records as a fell runner and is known as the King of the Fells, and the Iron Man.
He surprised members of the ladies running club on Monday evening, after being contacted by personal trainer Susie Anton over social media.
CLUB: Running club members meet running hero Joss Naylor
As well as the members, eleven year old, William Hicks-Hargreeves from Windermere, got to meet one of his running heroes.
Joss spoke with every member of the club, signed some copies of his autobiography, gave an inspiring speech for the club and then set them off on their evenings run.
Susie is a personal trainer and head of the running club, who organised the visit.
She is also a running coach for adults and kids, and has been coaching William for four years.
She said: "It was amazing to have him down with us.
"For us as Fell Runners he's like one of our running heroes.
"When he met William, he immediately said 'that's a future champion' which I thought was beautiful.
"I got in touch with Joss through Instagram.
RUNNERS: William pictured with Joss
"The whole thing was generally based around William. I've been coaching him for a few years now.
"He's gone from a small lad to a dedicated runner. He even joined the Ambleside Fell Running team last year.
"Joss responded straight away and agreed to come and meet everyone.
"He signed some copies of his book, had a great chat with William, and every individual member of the club.
"He gave us such a moving speech on how to get through the pandemic, to keep going and even if its just a way of connecting with others running can get you through anything.
"We had Matt from Pete Bland Sports come down as well who sponsors the running club.
"He came down at 6pm, he spoke to everyone one by one, and then he helped us do a little warm up for the evening.
"He then set us off on our run that night at 6:45pm which was a special treat."
In 2008, at the age of 70, Joss covered 70 of the Lakeland fells in under 21 hours.
BOOKS: Joss' book along side Susie's book
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