Getting the Running Bug pt1

When it all started?  February 2009, running around the local park, feeling the belly and back flab jiggling around me and getting out of breath after 5 minutes trying to run a football round with number-one-son.  Being outrun by 5yr old Alfie was a sobering experience.  Now, at the time I knew no runners at all and didn’t think to look up local running clubs, so after some online research found Sweatshop in Reading and went to buy some running pumps.  

I spent £80 on some bland looking Adidas Sequence shoes and then rushed home, put them on and went out for a 7km walk with a couple of minutes jogging thrown in.  Came home with a big blister on my heel which you can still see a scar from today! 

That could have been it for running, but as I am from tight arsed northern stock I thought there's no way I'm letting 80 quid go to waste, there must be a better way than this and I found a couch to 5k training plan.  Looking back at that time I’m amazed at how little I knew about running and that there was so much information out there from clubs and websites that could help build you into a decent runner with the minimum of pain and not a little enjoyment. Obviously I just thought you would get some shoes, put on shorts and a T-shirt and go. Well, I went, got about 500m from my front door and nearly collapsed, red faced, blowing, with a stitch and hammering heart.  

Having got the plan, I stuck with it; a series of gradually increasing intervals working up from 5 minutes to 25 minutes of continual jogging, running up and down the hills between Sandhurst and Crowthorne.  Most of the first 3 weeks I had to cunningly time the intervals so I was walking up the hills and jogging down the other side.

About this time I was thinking that just plodding up and down the same piece of road was getting rather dull.  I needed more motivation and found it in a fun run in Swinley Forest run by 3:09 Events.  I entered the 2.5mile run and made sure I could at least do a continuous 3miles in about 30minutes by race day.  

Come the race I found myself on the line with a dozen kids, their parents and a few other novice runners like myself.  We set off on the hilly course through the forest with the kids blazing a trail out front. After 25minutes I had passed only a few of the kids and I was thinking “Where the hell’s the finish, I must have taken a wrong turn!”  When I eventually crossed the line in 5^th place behind 4 lads all under 12, I heard the commentator saying “Let’s have a big cheer for the first adult over the line! We said it was 2.5miles, actually it was more like 4miles. Well done!”

We got finishers’ medals and a goody bag and after everyone had crossed the line we had presentations for the male and female winners.  Then I got a prize too – a T-shirt for coming in 5^th place overall and being the first person across the line big enough to fit the shirt!  I was a little embarrassed about taking the shirt, but got over it soon enough.

Next: Discovering parkrun and the Road to Mortimer