While most people in Bermuda on Saturday were dodging thunderstorms or trying to escape the extreme heat, one man was running a marathon.

Jake Liam Smith, a 28-year-old professional runner from Britain who is sponsored by Nike, took on the 81 per cent humidity at the weekend, completing 26 miles on island in a time of 2hr 31min as he trains for the Berlin Marathon next month.

Smith, who was born in Bermuda but left with his family as a young boy, is delighted to be back to celebrate the 30th wedding anniversary of his parents, who were married on the island.

“There are basically 20 of us here from the UK and Ireland all celebrating my parents’ wedding anniversary,” he said.

“I was born here, my parents got married here and they lived here for seven or eight years.

“They were running a lot in Bermuda with Steve Burgess and Steve actually came to our little gathering the other night, which was great. About ten of the guys here lived in Bermuda at the same time as my parents, so they all ran with Steve and played football.”

Smith remembers nothing of his time on island as a child but did return in 2017 and pounding the roads around Somerset and Dockyard brought back memories of that trip nearly a decade ago.

“As soon as I started running to Dockyard the memory came flooding back and I really want to come back more,” he said.

“I really love this country and I love running around this country and the way of life. It’s just so chilled out but, most importantly, running here gets you fit.

“The roads are just so clear in the mornings, especially at the weekend, and the drivers are really good to you and gave me a lot of support, but the running does get really tough.

“You’re having to drink a lot of water and a lot of electrolytes throughout the day. We’ve had a heatwave in the UK and I thought it was hot there, but it is nothing compared to Bermuda. This is a whole different beast.”

Smith paid a price for running in the heat, with his exertions taking a toll towards the end of the 26 miles.

“We picked a Dockyard loop and it went quite well,” Smith said.

“But I did feel like I was cramping up towards the end because you’re just dripping in sweat after a couple of kilometres, but hopefully this will make all the races feel that much easier when I get back to the UK and head over to Germany.

“I want to run 2hr 9min in Berlin, so I am hoping the hard work that I have put in here will help me to achieve that.”

Smith has more than 30,000 followers on Instagram and has been sponsored by Nike for nearly five years. However, his running career has not gone smoothly during that time with a number of injuries hindering his progress.

“I signed for Nike at the end of 2021 after running some crazy times in 2020,” Smith said.

“I also signed with the with the DSN running team and had Eliud Kipchoge [2016 and 2020 Olympic marathon champion] and Joshua Cheptegei [10,000 metres Olympic champion] as my training partner.

“They took me to Uganda for a few weeks, but I ended up getting really light, down to 51kg because I associated top runners as being light and skinny, but that led me to a lot of injuries.

“I had stress fractures in my sacrum and my back and on social media now I’m trying to help youngsters who think that being lighter is a lot better. I try to explain that can lead to a lot of problems and unhappiness.

“I now use my social media to say that being stronger and being more consistent leads to better results. I’m now able to train more and I have the strength to run in a place like Bermuda, whereas when I was so light I probably didn’t have the strength or the mental head space to do it.”

Signing a contract with Nike brings the pressure to perform and Smith admits to fears over losing his deal while going through those tough times.

“I did think my contract was going to come to a close when I got those injuries because, like professional footballers, if they don’t play for a while they’re out,” he said.

“But thankfully they’ve kept with me through the last couple of years when I was struggling and I’m now very close to being back to my best.

“It’s really cool to have that sponsorship behind me but it does result in me living quite a boring life. I literally wake up, train, nap for two hours and train again.

“I sometimes take the dog for a walk but coming away to Bermuda for a week and going swimming on some of the beaches here has just been amazing.”