I have my mate Jonny Nicolson to thank for bringing me back into 11-a-side after he and co-organiser Luke Goach set up the new Bramhope Vets team and brought me on board after I showed keen interest in getting back playing competitively again. It's worked out perfect for me, I live literally five minutes walk away from one of the two veteran league venues, which is St Mary's School and league games are every two weeks rather than every week, which to be fair is better for the recovery of my legs, which to be honest are shot to pieces now due to my calves and achilles tendons, which I've had problems with on and off over the last 4 or 5 years.
So, since I'm enjoying playing so much with a great bunch of lads, where we have a great team atmosphere and the playing venues work for me logistically, I really want to keep playing competitively until I'm at least 40 years old. This of course, is as long as my legs and body allows me to, which I don't see a problem there as long as I avoid any major injuries, touch wood.
My legs in reality probably are shot now if I'm honest but despite this, I do keep myself fit with my running and my explosive core workouts and although I have lost a lot of my natural speed and explosiveness, compared to the average amateur player and especially veterans age category, I am faster than most players which will help my longevity I hope. My pace started declining in my early 30's and especially my energy levels and that relentlessness which I always felt when I was 100% fit in my younger years, allowed me to excel over other players fitness wise and in terms of explosive speed and being able to run and dribble with the ball, that was always my style of play. However, I have had to adjust my style of play accordingly over the course of my early to mid 30's and now, in my late 30's as I approach 40 years old, I now play in bursts and pick and choose my moments to be explosive or dribble down the wing and I try to reserve energy instead where I can instead of wasting un-necessary energy, which I could get away with when I was younger or in my prime years.
I've played parts of two season's for Bramhope FC Vets so far, the back end of the Summer Season and the Winter Season which is on going. In all competitions including official 3 friendlies, this year I've made 8 appearances, scoring 2 goals and 3 assists. I've primarily played left wing, but ironically I scored a goal with my right foot playing on the left wing and I scored a goal with my weaker left foot playing on the right wing on grass. The normal venues are usually on 5g artificial pitches, which are very big pitches and fast.
I am yet to play as a striker or forward for the team but I'm sure I will at some point. I feel that I may actually be just as effective if not more effective playing as a striker as I love running in behind and against veteran teams I'll be dragging defenders all over the place stretching teams. I'm not a natural goal scorer so I'm not a prolific scorer in 11 a side but I can certainly chip in with a few and I create and get into scoring positions. I feel on the wing I do have to do a lot of tracking back and it does take away some of my attacking threat. In small sided football such as 5-a-side and 7-a-side, I score goals for fun as it's all shooting off instinct after a dribble or after creating space where as in 11-a-sde in front of goal it's about picking the right option I feel. That skill comes with playing in more advanced positions and getting yourself in goal scoring positions and being aware of the goalkeeper's position.
At 38 years old I feel very fit for my age and although I'm not able to be as dedicated as I was once upon a time, I'm enjoying my football as much as I ever have and love being part of an 11-a-side team again. One thing I have missed since I stopped playing for my cousin Michael Stephenson's 6 a-side team when I was 35 before Covid hit the world is being apart of a team and having a laugh with the footy lads.
I want to keep playing for as long as I can until I am at least 40 years old, not many amateur players can say they play into their 40's at a competitive level and I have such a passion for football that even though I can't play the way I once did, I just love learning new ways of playing and adapting my style of play. I have to say though, the day that I find I'm being outpaced by players who wouldn't have outpaced me a few years ago is probably the day I retire, until then I'm game!
Football Nickname: @ Joycinho
all forms of senior football:
aged 17 to 38 (present) : senior to veteran
2002 to 2022
MY COMPETITIVE FOOTBALL STATISTICS
All-time competitive Football statistics @ senior level (aged 17 to 38 present)
Senior age to Veteran age
All forms of football including:
Eleven a side
Five a side
Futsal
Indoor
Seven a side
Six a side
APPEARANCES = 931
GOALS = 1,158
ASSISTS = 889
PENALTIES SCORED = 22 (of 26 attempts)
FREE KICKS SCORED = 3
MAN OF THE MATCH = 61
HAT-TRICKS = 154
CONSECUTIVE HAT-TRICKS = 5
MILESTONES (5 goals) = 23
MOST GOALS IN A MATCH (official) = 7
MOST GOALS IN A MATCH (unofficial) = 18
YELLOW CARDS = 0
RED CARDS = 0
BLUE CARDS (5 a side) = 1
TEAM HONOURS = 29
INDIVIDUAL HONOURS = 12
TEAMS CAPTAINED = 5
MINOR SHORT TERM INJURIES = 18
SERIOUS LONG TERM INJURIES = 0
DATE UPDATED: 13th December 2022
*Last competitive match: 14th November 2022
GOALS TO GAMES RATIO:
AFTER 500 GOALS (in 454 games) = 1.1 GOAL PER GAME
Aged 25 in June 2010
BETWEEN 500 & 1,000 GOALS (in 360 games) = 1.3 GOAL PER GAME
June 2010 to August 2014
AFTER 1,000 GOALS (in 814 games) = 1.2 GOAL PER GAME
Aged 29 in August 2014
FROM 1,000 GOALS TO DATE: 1,158 GOALS (158 goals in 117 games) = 1.3 GOAL PER GAME
August 2014 to November 2022
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OTHER MILESTONES:
I reached 500 games by age 26
(Average of 55 games per year)
I reached 900 games by age 32
(Average of 60 games per year)
ESTIMATED ALL-TIME COMPETITIVE GAMES:
*1,011
*Approximate figure since Junior Football Age Group (8 years old) through Open Age Group to Veterans Football Age Group (38 years old) = 30 Years
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PRIME / PEAK - AGES / YEARS:
25 (2010), 27 (2012), 28 (2013), 29 (2014), 30 (2015)
Aside from my football ambition of playing competitively until the age of 40, I have also set myself the goal of reaching 50 official half marathon's by the age of 45, which is easily do able for me as long as I at least run a couple a year from next year.
I am currently on 34 half marathon's and 8 marathon's. I retired myself from the full marathon distance in 2018 at 33 year years old after I completed my last London Marathon on a 'Good For Age' qualification place after a 3:04:44 marathon race time in 2016, however I failed to gain a qualification time again in 2018. I then 'semi-retired' from competitive running and athletics in 2018.
Since then, my running and especially my training has been very sporadic but in my mid to late 30's, I have had periods of mild dedication but nothing like I was training and competing back in the late 20's and very early 30's.
However, this past 8 months to a year I have found my passion back for endurance running in particular and I have entered the inaugural Rob Burrow Leeds Marathon which takes place in May 2023.
I have ran 4 official half marathon races this year:
- Leeds Half Marathon in May,
- Ilkley Half Marathon in July,
- Leeds Running Festival Half Marathon in September,
- Run Nation Run Yorkshire Roundhay Half Marathon in October
I have ran 4 virtual half marathon runs this year and several running challenges over 50 miles and half marathon's in training runs.
It has been a great year for me with finding my passion back for running, especially road running. My training has been fun, I have been mixing it up with looping road runs and off road trail runs around High Royds Estate where I live. All my training runs I also wear weights, either a weighted vest or weighted gloves to make my training runs that bit harder so that on race day, I feel as light as a feather. I feel that's a mental strength thing as much as a physical advantage.
What has excited me too is that, running is a sport that is pure and you get out of it what you put in so it's no surprise that I'm now running faster times than the last couple of years now that I'm training regularly again rather than on and off. I have also stopped weight training and concentrate on core strength workouts instead of adding all that extra muscle and density on top, especially since I have more body fat these days now I'm older, it's not good for your running.
Everyone has an optimal running race weight and mine is around 9 to 9.5 stone, so even with all this training I am a stone and a half off being able to get anywhere near my old Personal Best times but I'm not overly bothered about race times a this point and I just want to keep hitting milestones.
Next up I have a 20 mile virtual run in January with my mate Jonny Roberts, who is also running the marathon. I then have a virtual half marathon in February with my fellow RJ Sports Running Team - my sister Melanie Joyce, Jonny, my cousin Matthew Stephenson (who has also entered the Leeds Marathon) and my mate Luke Redfearn who has got into running properly this last year or so himself.
In March I'm hoping to enter the Sheffield Half Marathon and then I hope to get a couple of 20 milers in before tapering down for the Leeds Marathon in May.
I am running the Leeds Marathon for the Leeds Hospitals Charity to help raise money towards the build of the Rob Burrow MND Research Centre in the hope we can find a cure for this awful disease that has effected one of the great modern rugby league players Rob Burrow. It's been hard to watch Rob and his illness but Rob, along with his best friend and former Leeds Rhinos team-mate Kevin Sinfield and Scottish rugby union legend Doddie Weir who recently sadly passed away from the same disease have been raising millions of pounds to try and find a cure for this horrible disease.
If you'd like to sponsor me you can do so using this link here:
http://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Richard-Joyce-Rob-Burrow-Leeds-Marathon-2003
My training for the marathon began back in May this year after the re-branded Leeds Marathon was announced and brought back to life under the inspiration of Rob Burrow and Kevin Sinfield. This is the first official Leeds Marathon event since 2003, some 20 years ago. Since then, the Leeds Half Marathon has been the number one big race event in Leeds. I am very excited to be apart of this huge event and I just wanted to be apart of it and that was a big inspiration for me to enter the marathon as well.
Aside from that, it's the challenge of knowing I can run a marathon again and putting in the hard training. I know that I can't run the times I could run in my late 20's and early 30's when I was in my athletic running prime but I have finally accepted that mentally and I just want to reach milestones and enjoy every race and training run.
Once I have ran the Leeds Marathon I will have hit 9 official marathon's and lets be honest, even if I do put my full marathon distance trainers away, I do think that 9 marathon's will itch away at me so I wouldn't be surprised if I come back again in the future to hit 10 marathons - make it double figures, but we'll see, it all depends how this goes and most of all, whether I really want to put my body through a marathon again as it's such a physically painful endurance to out your body through that you really have to have the desire to do it or it really isn't enjoyable. I also think every marathon takes something from you - it's miles on the clock, miles on the old pedometer.
But we'll see.
In terms of the half marathon's, for me I really do have an ambition to hit 50 half marathon's by the time I hit 45 years old. After this year I should be on 36 official half marathons and from 2024 I plan to continue to run the Leeds Half Marathon every year until I have ran it 20 years (with 2 years off due to the Leeds Marathon being the same day in 2023 and cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic). I am currently on 15 years. I also plan to run the Ilkley Half Marathon every year too so if I stick to this plan, I should have actually reached 50 half marathon's by the age of 43.
Marathon: 2:57:29 (London Marathon 2014)
Aged 29
Twenty Miles: 2:14:13 (East Hull 20 2016)
Aged 31
Half Marathon: 1:22:45 (Leeds Half Marathon 2014)
Aged 29
Ten Miles: 1:04:36 (Eccup 10 2012)
Aged 27
10K: 36:11 (Abbey Dash 10K 2013)
Aged 28
5K: 17:43 (John Carr 5k Race Series 2015)
Aged 30
One Mile: 5:02 (Leeds Golden Mile Track Event 2013)
Aged 28
MY BODY CLOCK MILES IN RUNNING AS AN ADULT:
(2007-2022)
Between the age of 22 to 38 years old (now)
These are all the miles on my body clock and legs just through the big distances of the marathon (26.2 miles), twenty milers (20 miles) and the half marathon (13.1 miles).
PLEASE NOTE: This includes only races. Training runs are not considered.
MARATHON COUNT: 8
(retired 2018, aged 33
comeback 2023, aged 38)
TWENTY MILES COUNT: 5
HALF MARATHON COUNT: 34
753.8 miles
(2007-2022)
16 years
Me and my fiance Katie also have some big news that we are expecting a baby boy. I am really excited and can't wait for a few years down the line when I can kick a footy around with my son, or kick the rugby ball around on the local fields, go out for runs around the local trails and do some fitness together. I really do hope my passion for sports and fitness, both taking part and watching will inspire my son as he grows up.
Having said that, if his passions in life doesn't involve sport that's okay - I just want to see my son follow his passions in life and be inspired. I'm hoping my medals and trophies that I've earned over the years in sport that I take great pride in inspires my son to find his passions in life and be proud to achieve things that makes him happy just like sport and fitness has always done for me.
Our baby boy is due on 4th May, which is Star Wars Day - 'May the fourth be with you'.
Haha, I have to say, the arrival of our boy will be cutting it very fine for me with the Leeds Marathon as the marathon takes place on 14th May, 10 days after the expected birth date, so despite all the hard training I'll have pout in over the past year, there is still that chance I may not be able to actually run it depending on which day our son is born ! Watch this space !
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FOLLOW MY SPORTS, FITNESS & SPIRITUAL JOURNEY:
INSTAGRAM: @joycinho
TWITTER: @rjsports1 @joycinho @rjrugbyleague
SPIRITUAL TWITTER: @JoyceParanormal