Never being someone that has enjoyed sport or any type of fitness (apart from dancing) three years ago, 30 was fast approaching.
I joined a gym and reluctantly got on the cross trainer. I wasn’t enjoying it or getting the results I wanted so switched to the running machine.
Everyday 3-4 times a week I would get up in the middle of winter and drag myself, in the dark, to my local gym where I would run to 80’s power ballads for 20 minutes…. it was unsatisfying and wasn’t getting any easier.
I was living with a housemate at the time who had run the London marathon and was due to do a 1/2 that summer, she told me to try outdoor running. I was so hesitant as I thought once I moved off the treadmill I wouldn’t be able to run at all so carried on.
I was traveling for work and found myself in LA, staying in a hotel on the coast with no gym, one evening I put on my trainers and just went on to the beach path and did my first outdoor run!
I think being on a Californian beach really helped but after I was so energised, proud and loved it!
I was living with a housemate at the time who had run the London marathon and was due to do a 1/2 that summer, she told me to try outdoor running. I was so hesitant as I thought once I moved off the treadmill I wouldn’t be able to run at all so carried on.
I was traveling for work and found myself in LA, staying in a hotel on the coast with no gym, one evening I put on my trainers and just went on to the beach path and did my first outdoor run!
I think being on a Californian beach really helped but after I was so energised, proud and loved it!
I haven’t stepped foot in a gym since, that was two years ago.
I started finding the routes around my area that I enjoyed, including parks, streets and cemeteries and slowly increased the kilometers.
Over the first lockdown me and running became very intertwined, those days when we were only allowed to go out for an hour’s exercise my runs became so important, it wasn’t just exercise any more it was the only other thing I was doing out of my top floor flat.
Cut to February 2021, after a knee injury and a spell of not running due to dark wet days of lockdown 3 I booked a 1/2 marathon for a cause that is so important!
Freedom for Girls tackles period inequalities from people not being able to afford sanitary products to educating everyone to try to eradicating the stigma attached to periods.
I have just completed that 1/2 marathon!
It was hard!
There were exhilarating highs (two to be exact) and sluggish lows, mental battles and from 16km onwards I didn’t think I would make it.
But I did it in just over 2hrs.
My medal is now hanging off my bed post!
My relationship with running is unlike anything else in my life, each and every time I put my trainers on I feel reluctance and anxious but that first 30 seconds with Cyndi Lauper on my head phones and I am so relieved that I pushed myself out the door.