How the career criminal jailed for life is MOVING MOUNTAINS to get kids into trail running

John McAvoy‘s story is a remarkable one. And one that has been well documented, including here on RUN247.

His autobiography – ‘Redemption: From Iron Bars to Ironman’ – charts how the former career criminal became a world record-holding endurance athlete.

But what he – and others – are currently doing to help transform the lives of inner-city kids is worthy of just as much attention.

The Alpine Run Project is an initiative created by McAvoy and Youth Beyond Borders and the latest step on the journey comes this weekend in conjunction with the 13 Valleys Ultra in the Lake District as the project gains further momentum in the build towards the 2027 target of enabling 100,000 young people from diverse backgrounds to take part in trail running.

‘A moment of clarity’

The initial idea for the project came when John ran in a 40km race at the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc (UTMB) in Chamonix in 2022.

The very fact he was able to take part in that was extraordinary – he had received a life sentence and was sent to Belmarsh, one of Britain’s highest security prisons.

But he turned his life around in prison and with the help of a guard, who showed him the power of sport during his rehabilitation, broke world records for indoor rowing while he was behind bars.

He was released in 2012 but as he explained when he sat down for a in-depth interview with RUN247, by 2019 he still wasn’t able to travel: “I had a life sentence, so I wasn’t able to leave the United Kingdom but Sajid Javid, the home secretary at the time, removed all my life sentence conditions.”

That was in recognition of his positive transformation and work to help others in the years since his release. And it enabled him to venture abroad, with McAvoy leaping at the chance: “So this journey really began in 2019 when I came out to the higher mountains for the first time in my whole adult life. I completely and utterly fell in love with the Alps, which led me to move here permanently. 

“I realised when I come to this place the impact it had on my life, and I wanted to open that up to young people who wouldn’t get the opportunity to come. Because when I’m here in the ski season for instance, it’s predominantly white, middle class people. It’s very rare you see anyone outside of that demographic.

“So with a friend of mine we brought out young, inner city people from youth centres to the Alps in the summer, where I saw the impact with my own eyes.

“And not long after that I was given a place in MCC at the UTMB, which is like the locals race. At the end of that, when I was running into Chamonix, I just remember it as the most amazing feeling in the world. I was so present in the moment – the hairs on my neck stood up and it was super emotional. I crossed the finishing line and I had this moment of clarity. Everything came together and it was like, I can use the sport of trail running as a vehicle to bring these kids out to the mountains.”

The power of giving back

That would prove to be the catalyst for the Alpine Run Project and Darren Davis – the guard who had believed in McAvoy in prison – has been an integral part of the whole process.

McAvoy tells us: “It’s like paying it forward – to have Darren part of this journey with me, to interact with these young people and have them change their lives like he did mine. We’re doing it in partnership with each other. And I can’t talk on behalf of the kids, but I can say from what I’ve seen that Darren’s had such a profound impact on their lives.

“And it means the world to me because of the impact he had on my life all those years ago. I try to instil that in the young people – the power of giving back. Without Darren helping me, I would never be in the position I’m in today to help them. It shows if you can just help one person, the impact that that can have on their life and how they can then impact other people’s lives.”

The first intake of 14 kids were mentored and trained to take part in a 15km race at UTMB in 2023 and by far the best way to understand the impression that made on them is to watch the half-four film ‘Streets to the Peaks‘ which has garnered lots of deserved acclaim and has recently been made available on Amazon Prime to take the story to a much wider and more mainstream audience.

Nike, who sponsor McAvoy, have been instrumental from the start too and this year’s recent Chamonix trip saw 20 more youngsters become part of the mentoring programme, with several of their 2023 predecessors acting as ambassadors.

That illustrates the gathering momentum and “giving back” – and another key aspect this year, with this weekend the perfect illustration, is widening the reach and impact by providing many more kids with the opportunity to visit some of the UK’s great outdoor spaces.

Destination UK

The UK element is already well under way and the latest addition is the 13 Valleys Ultra, the UK’s biggest ultra trail running event, which takes place in the Lake District later this week.

In collaboration with their event partner Nike Vision and the Alpine Run Project, they have already hosted 12 inner-city teens in the Lake District for a recce run of the 2 Valleys race route – which they will race on Saturday – and that in itself was a potentially transformative experience for many of them.

McAvoy explains: “At the beginning, the project was always about bringing kids out to the Alps, bringing them into the mountains, because I live here and it had such a profound impact on my life. 

“But when I worked with last year’s group, what I realised was most of them had never even been out to the Peak District or the Lake District or the Surrey Hills, and it literally was on their doorstep. So we did a training camp last year in the Peak District and I would say over half of our cohort were from up north, from Newcastle or Manchester. Only one of them had ever been to the Peak District and some of them didn’t even know it existed. 

“And when we bought them there, I remember the first trail run we did; the sun was coming up and there was wildlife running around they were just in awe. And then obviously at that point I was thinking, wow, you think this is impressive, wait until you go out to the Alps. But it then hit me hard how many young people are really disconnected from nature – where they don’t even have access, or don’t think they have access, to places that are quite local to them. 

“So the Alpine Run Project has taken on a different sort of spin this year, where we wanted to partner up with organisations across the UK to open up nature and open up travelling to the cohort of young people.

“Obviously at the back end of it, the UTMB, the YCC for the young people, would always be a big part of it for a group of them. But throughout that journey, it’s about providing them the opportunity to take part in trail running events, to go and do hikes and stuff like that.”

Nature closer to home

The 13 Valleys Ultra has pledged 25 free entries to the group, not just for this year but going forward, offering them the chance to challenge themselves and experience an ultra trail race. These athletes will be at the start line of the 2 Valleys race on Saturday, covering 22km and 477 metres of elevation gain.

The 13 Valleys’ brand manager is Alice Peyredieu and she told us: “I think what John just said in terms of the impact that it had on the kids was so evident when they came up here for the first time.

“That was my first time meeting everyone, and we did a recce day, which was a mixture of running and hiking the whole route.

“I think you don’t realise this until you meet them, but just seeing what they got out of that – seeing the wonder in their eyes was an amazing feeling. They were just so happy to be there and I think they really enjoyed that. 

“I’ve had a lot of athletes coming to the lakes and doing recces, but many of them are so used to it. It’s not that they don’t care, but it’s a different kind of feeling. So it feels very rewarding when you see those kids say ‘we’re still in the UK, but there’s this. And it’s available to me’. 

“And we didn’t want to work with the Alpine Run Project just on the one event. I don’t want it to be just a one year thing where we invite the kids, they do the race and then that is it. I’m seeing this as a long term partnership for years to come.

“And it’s funny because talking to them, the kids all have different goals and objectives on Saturday. Some of them are like, I’m going to win it, I’m going to be top three. And then others are just there to have fun and experience it. 

“And trail running is still very much a white, male-dominated sport, where the average age is in the forties. And to be honest, if you look at the start line of our event last year, that is largely what you see. You don’t really see many people from the BAME community at all. And I think representation is key. 

If you can’t see yourself then you think, well, this isn’t for me. And that needs to change.

‘A representation of Britain today’

McAvoy is in full agreement and added: “I’d like to personally thank the 13 Valleys for giving us the opportunity to not just come to the race, but actually everything they’ve done behind the scenes as well, like giving the young people the opportunity to come up to see the route and the area. It was great to have the group together as a team. 

“And to me that just shows the commitment to this project. It’s not just about free race bibs. They’ve gone above and beyond in supporting the project and helping the growth of these young people.

“Many have had very limited life opportunities. I want the Alpine Run Project to have a profound, life-changing effect on these young people. I didn’t want it just to be a superficial thing.

“And then you create the movement of ambassadors for this project, and they’re the ones that will encourage and inspire other young people to continue to carry on that journey of running.”

There are some amazing stories already – including one of the initial cohort who wants to become a professional trail runner and is already excelling despite her relative inexperience, which McAvoy hopes will inspire other young women and girls to get into sport.

And it’s the bigger picture which also resonates with McAvoy: “What’s really amazing – and is something consciously I never thought about last year – is that for me, it’s a representation of Britain today. 

“You have these kids, they’re from different parts of the UK, they’ve got different accents, got different religions, are different races, and all of that just falls by the wayside. They’re just a community of young people that have gone on this incredible life journey together – one big family. 

“And that, to me, again shows you the power of what sport can do for young people’s lives. It’s a very good teacher of life skills and I think if you can get young people committed to a goal, they work towards it. It teaches teamwork and helps build resilience. You learn how to deal with setbacks and these are the things that got me through my life. It’s changing the odds and showing that anything is possible.

“It’s the awareness of how big the world is. Because sometimes, they’re in their own sort of bubbles. We were on this athletics track in Chamonix the first day we got there and I pointed to Mont Blanc and said to one of the boys that mountain will be there millions of years after we’re gone. And it was something he could barely compute because he’d never been somewhere like that before. Life is so short and precious. You have to make the most of it.”

From 14 to 100,000

But the next stage is about scaling it up and the future aspirations – as you’d expect from McAvoy and the teams behind him – are ambitious, with 2027 the target to enabling 100,000 young people from diverse backgrounds from cities across Europe to take part in trail running.

“We started from ground zero in 2022 and have needed two years building solid foundations,” says McAvoy. “From last year to this year, our partnerships have grown, massively. Hence why we are sending young people out to so many different races across the UK. 

“Now it’s all about building those networks and partnerships. For example we’re currently in the process of having conversations with the National Trust. I’m on a calls with Strava, France and Spain, about working engagement and community groups in those two countries. 

“And next year, we’re really going to be partnering up with schools, community centres and so on where on a weekend we take young people out to places like the Peak District and the Lake District, and give them the opportunity to go out on trails if they’ve never experienced it before, as well as access to all these different races across the calendar year.”

The latest step comes this weekend at the 13 Valleys and momentum is building fast.