“Hi, I’m Paul although I also go under the name "Beowulf" which is my Concept2 forum name. It has become an adopted motivation name which I use to gear myself up for the "pain" sessions… and it might have something to do with traditionally fast finishes to races.

I am originally from Yorkshire in the UK although my father's family is from Belfast. I moved to Cork in Ireland in 2005 and have lived and worked there ever since. Before I moved to Ireland I weighed in at about 120kg (18st 12lbs). I played No.6 for my rugby club’s first team every Saturday and trained in the gym five days a week - weights and some indoor rowing for CV.

When I moved to Cork I stopped the rugby and took up an old sporting interest in American Football for four seasons but in 2009 I finished with this. Gym work came to a halt at around the same time. Then the inevitable happened and I gained weight, which somehow worked its way up to about 137kg (21st 8lbs). 

I had to do something about it and so in March 2010 at the ripe old age of 35 I started back in a gym and after reasonable amount of CV work I got down to 127kg (20st 0lbs), but I needed more motivation and a goal. I was no longer playing rugby or American football and I needed a reason to go to the gym or I would get bored and start skipping it.

This is when a flash of inspiration appeared in the form of a "Gym Challenge" at my local gym. I only found out about it 24 hours before the competition (1km bike, 1km x-trainer, 1km run, 1km row) but gave it a go anyway. Now the run was not pretty, but I came fourth overall and noticed that my rowing smashed the rest of the guys. It was not long before I found the concept2.com website and realised that my 1k erg score was a reasonable time for the distance.