Christopher Eccleston on his love affair with running: ‘I always feel better after a run’

I started running in 1989 and was very quickly addicted. I would run 10 miles, five or six days a week. Sometimes more. I did that for 25 years, until the kids came along. Running was a constant for me.

I started when I’d come out of drama school and been unemployed for three years. I couldn’t get an agent, couldn’t get a job, couldn’t get an equity card. So I moved back to Salford and was working on the crew at the Royal Exchange.

I’d contact my old mates about playing football or squash and they’d all got married or moved on. I remember one day just banging the phone down because no one could play, so I went for a run instead. My twin brothers had run when the whole running boom kicked in in the early 80s.

Actor Christopher Eccleston is running the London Marathon 2024 to raise money for the Big Issue. You can sponsor him here.

And I can’t speak highly enough about running when it comes to mental health. When I was admitted to hospital in 2016, a doctor asked my general history. I told him about the running. He said, what you’re doing there is self-medicating. You’ve perhaps always been lower in serotonin than some people and you’re raising it by those mammoth runs. When I was hospitalised and on a lot of medication, I think not being able to go for my run deepened my depression.

And it’s true, I always feel better after a run. Within 20 minutes, my thoughts become more positive, I become more optimistic and more proactive. It must be chemical. So I can’t think of anything more important to me in my life, other than my children, than exercise.

And running is the key. Because running is the easiest and least time consuming. You just step out of the door and you’re doing it. And you can take it anywhere with you.

It means fresh air and, if you’re lucky, nature. I head for the most greenery I can. It was life changing when I started running and remains so.

Running also helps me with unemployment as an actor – both in terms of giving me a goal and as a form of meditation. I remember one day I got so deep in my thoughts that I kind of came to during a run. I was probably five miles in. My body could do it automatically in a physical sense, and I’ll never forget that feeling of coming back to the reality of my feet hitting the pavement. I don’t know where I’d been. But I’m always in search of that deep meditation that can come with it.

When I’m working, running helps keep me out of the bar – and allows me to go to the bar. Because I feel like I deserve a reward when I do it. It also gives you stamina for the 12 or 14-hour days, six days a week as an actor. It’s great for focus and strengthens my will and my ability to concentrate. Because if you’re going to run a marathon, never mind your body, it’s so much about your will. You get to a point where your body can do it, then you have to deal with your mind.

My favourite place to run is between Porthgwarra and Land’s End on the Southwest Coastal Path. You have to concentrate on every footstep because you’re on a coastal path and there’s something very meditative about that. It’s more like fell running. You’ve got the oxygen coming off the ocean, all the beauty around you – my great ambition is to run the whole coastal path over a number of weeks. Maybe take a tent.

I’ve run all over the world. As I say, it’s something you take with you. When I lived in Los Angeles, I used to love running in Topanga Canyon or up to the Hollywood sign then on to a Mount Hollywood, which overlooks the planetarium where they shot Rebel Without a Cause. I even saw rattlesnakes.

I’ve run in the hills of Mexico. And I ran in Iceland when I was doing True Detective in Reykjavik, along the seafront and past that extraordinary concert hall. I also did a great deal of running when we filmed The A Word in the Lake District. My character Maurice was a fell runner and I based his wardrobe on the great Josh Naylor, who is probably the greatest fell runner that’s ever lived. So running in the Lakes was massive for me.

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My two favourite cities in the world are Glasgow and Belfast – the two best cities to drink, run and work in (aside from Salford, of course). When I was filming Shallow Grave in Glasgow, I used to leave my flat and run for 45 minutes then turn around and come back. But a couple of times, I got lost. I would stop motorists and ask for directions and they’d be like, “Oh, get in the car. I’ll take you mate.” No, no, no, I want to run. “Nah, you’re alright, I’ll give you a lift!” So friendly.

I did my last marathon in 2014, when I was 50, to celebrate my daughter Esme who had been born in August 2013. Now I want to run another one to celebrate the fact that I’m still alive at 60. Turning 60 has hit me pretty hard. I was thinking I was going to throw a great big party. But when it approached, I just disappeared on holiday with the kids. But it’s a big one.

So I’m attempting a marathon. And I’m promising myself that when 70 comes around, I will try it again. Because that will keep me focused and busy for a decade. That’s the plan – to make the next decade as disciplined and energetic as the previous one. And onwards and onwards.

In the past, I’ve always made myself run 20 miles exactly a month before a marathon. This time I managed 18 last week. I was pretty tired for a couple of days afterwards. It surprised me. It told me that I’ve aged a bit. Because when I was 50, that kind of a distance didn’t bother me. For previous marathons, I’ve felt I had it in the tank, this time, I’m a little less certain.

So I’m going to be relying even more on that phenomenal community spirit that you get among the runners and spectators. One of the most glorious things is the encouragement that other runners give each other. We’re quite a cold nation, I think. But on days like the London Marathon, that coldness seems to go out the window. It’s a celebration of the city, a celebration of being alive, a celebration of humanity.

I’m hoping I will get round. I don’t think I’m going to be smashing any records. Four and a half hours would be a big achievement for somebody my age and with my training. Because the last few years I’ve focused more on boxing training and weights than running.

Knowing I’m raising money for Big Issue will help so much. That will spur me on. And so will wearing the Big Issue kit, to raise awareness.

It’s all about getting people with a roof over their head and a sense of their own dignity and independence. I want to see less and less people sleeping in doorways. It seems to have quadrupled before my eyes. My children have mentioned it. They’re quite switched on about what I do with the Big Issue. We talk about it a lot.

Homelessness seems to be increasing phenomenally at the moment. If you walk around Manchester city centre, for instance, every shop door is occupied. When I fell ill in 2016, it could have happened to me. People don’t understand that people on the street come from a broad spectrum. And it can so easily happen.

So the work of the Big Issue and being an ambassador for the Big Issue is very important to me. That is why I want to give the Big Issue some extra visibility via a great love of mine, which is running.

You can sponsor Christopher Eccleston here

Christopher Eccleston was speaking to Adrian Lobb.

This article is taken from The Big Issue magazine, which exists to give homeless, long-term unemployed and marginalised people the opportunity to earn an income. To support our work buy a copy!

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