Advertisement

I stopped drinking alcohol for a year. The health benefits – mental and physical – since I quit, and how my life changed

  • SCMP sports reporter Patrick Blennerhassett quit drinking to train for the 2020 Hong Kong Marathon and discovered unexpected mental health benefits
  • While the race was cancelled due to Covid-19, he finds himself on a new, more enticing journey – what could he achieve if he stays alcohol-free?

Reading Time:4 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
5
SCMP sports reporter Patrick Blennerhassett stopped drinking alcohol a year ago. After seeing a range of health benefits – some expected, some not – after he quit, he is keen to continue his journey of self-exploration. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

I made a pledge to myself 365 days ago: no alcohol for nine months in a bid to run a personal best at the 2020 Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon, which was to have taken place in February.

Advertisement
I revamped my diet, turning to intermittent fasting and giving up dairy and red meat. I dropped 10kg (22lb) and whittled my body fat percentage down to 5.7, rediscovering my abs. I set about training relentlessly, clocking close to 100km (62 miles) a week.
At 37 years old it looked like I was destined to clock the best time of my life. As the marathon loomed in January, I was running at a low three-hour race pace, training under coach and physiotherapist Erwan Desvalois of Joint Dynamics. There were worries the anti-government protests would see the race cancelled, but I was hopeful all the training and sacrifices I’d made would not go to waste.

And then we rang in 2020, a year none of us will forget. One lesson I’ve learned: life does not draw in straight lines.

On January 25, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor announced the marathon was a no-go in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. I scrambled to find another testing ground, but races were cancelled one by one across the planet, along with other major sporting events.

I’d come home from a run the day I found out, and the shock had me believing it was all a lucid dream I would shake off with my morning coffee. But January turned to February, and then March and April, and now we sit on the anniversary of the day I took on this challenge: May 6, 2019. Hong Kong’s social distancing measures are easing, but the world is still on its knees from Covid-19.

Advertisement