Hi, I’m Simon Parkinson and I’m a runner, I don’t jog, I run! and trust me there is a vast difference. I didn’t start off a runner, or a jogger for that matter, I was rather more lazy and preferred to enjoy the good life, or so I thought. I did all the normal sport at school, was pretty good at swimming and water polo, athletics was not my favourite and running cross-country I actually hated. In my late teens and early 20s I found the art of partying, staying up late, doing absolutely no exercise whatsoever a perfect way to live life. Of course it was cool to smoke, so I threw in 20 a day for good measure, and continued to concentrate on my career, love life, and ever expanding waistline. Unfortunately, I was to find out only later in life that I am one of those type of guys who ends up being three of four meals ahead and five or six xxxxxx behind. Now I never got to the proportions of our dear Brad Brown, but 96 KG’s and a height of 1.8 m is not exactly what Discovery is looking for in the perfect client.

My career in the radio had begun and I was waking up at 4 AM Monday to Friday to present the National breakfast on a radio station called 3FM in Zimbabwe. I was always surprised when the various triathletes came in for interviews on the odd occasion and complain about the smoke-filled studio which had no Windows & nine times out of 10 broken air-conditioner. I moved to South Africa in 1999 and joined 94.7 Highveld Stereo, the world was changing, smoking in studios was not allowed for a start, but my life was also changing. My wife Caren was pregnant with our first child, and she was going through the stage where she could smell a cigarette from a couple of miles away, clearly this was becoming a problem for us, so I gave up! I’d wanted to give up anyway, but of course that didn’t help the weight – I was on the up and I had to do something about it. In short it wasn’t running, I went to Weight Watchers lost 12 KG’s in five months and then felt that maybe I should run in order to keep the weight off.




So I gave up one addiction and found another one! I wasn’t great runner, but I did enjoy the social and still do enjoy the social, in fact the best part of the run is afterwards having a beer with your mates on a school field at 8 AM. My first ever 21km was the 2006 Dischem in Bedfordview Johannesburg, and since then I’ve done numerous 21’s, 6 Two Ocean Ultra marathons and Three Comrades, I never dreamt of doing all of this and am still shocked when I think about it. I have made loads of mates, I’ve solved a million things in my head on training runs, sometimes by myself, other times not, but I’ve had a balance in life. The best part is I’ve never had to go on diet, I maintain my weight, and I live a relatively healthy lifestyle – yes the parties still creep in, but balance is the key. Running is part of my life and it can be part of yours to.

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Radio personality, Sports Journalist, entrepreneur and motivational speaker, Brad Brown has shown time and again that drive and persistence – and a healthy dose of cheek – can help you to make your dreams come true.




Currently the presenter of SAfm’s Sports Special on Saturday and Sunday Afternoons and a sports journalist for Supersport Blitz, Brad started out on campus and then community radio. A turning point came when he auditioned for 94.7 Highveld Stereo’s Hot Jocks talent competition, and didn’t make it through the first round but instead of going home, he got back into the queue to try again eventually finishing second in the competition! After working his fair share of graveyard shifts he started featuring on the station’s main line up, eventually hosting the afternoon drive. Early in 2012, Brad decided to pursue his sporting passion and joined Eye Witness News as their weekend breakfast sport anchor, covering sport across all four of Primedia’s radio stations namely 94.7 Highveld Stereo and Talk Radio 702 in Johannesburg and 94.5 KFM and 567 Cape Talk in the Western Cape.




In a similar show of sheer dedication and commitment, Brad has lost over 50kgs in the past few years and gone from overweight couch potato to multiple finisher of both the Ironman triathlon and Comrades Marathon. Not content with just making up the numbers Brad has put in hours of blood, sweat and tears and has become a fairly competitive triathlete. Not only has he been selected to represent Central Gauteng in the sport at the standard distance he recently finished eleventh in his age group at the South African long course championships in the half Ironman distance.