I am a high school teacher who lives in the catchment area. 5 stone overweight, never done physical exercise in my life and so crippled by anxiety and depression that for 2 years I could not leave my bedroom without the use of major tranquilizers.
I started C25k in May - I joined an adults-only gym and thought it would be cheaper than a personal trainer. I used to use the treadmill in the corner where no one could see me. Then I enrolled in a 5k and decided I needed to get some outdoor training in - so I drove 5 miles away from here where no one would know me. Then I started running nearer to home, but in the dark so no one could see me. I have slowly been moving the time of my runs forward so now I run in the light.
I didn't notice that I don't care anymore if people see me in my too-tight jogging bottoms with a beatroot face.
The acid test came today when I did my run, and bumped into 5 kids (all of whom I teach tomorrow and are "interesting" characters) and a collegue. Only 1 person from work has ever caught me running in the past. I am not the most loved of teachers, and do get some ribbing from the kids. But today was great, because these kids who could have mocked didn't. They said "Hi miss" and nothing else. And if they mock me tomorrow it occurs I don't really care.
In 4 weeks time it is the school's 10k walk, and I think I might run half of it, and screw the raised eyebrows.
I have realised that running has given me some confidence. And it's fucking fantastic.
Written by
Kimmiijay
Graduate
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I can truly empathise as I work in a school too and I know how hard it is to just survive each day in the sort of environment where your face doesn't fit. Well done though, you have persevered despite the difficulties of training within your catchment area and come out of the other end a stronger and more confident person. Give yourself a huge pat on the back and walk into that classroom tomorrow with your head held high. You will have the last laugh on that 10k walk when some others could be struggling with just walking it and you burst into a run.
Fantastic and inspirational post, thanks for sharing. I'm only gradually realising how much running has a correlation with increasing confidence. It's a completely unlooked-for bonus, but so welcome. So glad you are feeling good about yourself and your running now. The kids probably have increased respect having seen you running. And people respect others who have self-confidence, so your aura of "I don't mind what you think of me because I'm happy with what I'm doing" now will be apparent to them as well. It's a win-win situation, surely!
Well done there! As someone who also struggles with anxiety and depression, I agree that C25K has worked wonders for my self confidence and my mood. Pretty much no real exercise for around 30 years and then I dropped onto C25K and decided to give it a go - and enjoy it so much that I get grouchy now if I can't get out for one of my regular runs!
Hey YOU, congrats for coming this far...gr8 achievement! Well done and keep it up! Shhh....teacher says the 'F' word!!
Remember, as for not liking by everyone at work, who cares? You can't make people like you and in fact it is hard when everyone likes you as you got to live up to it. I like you for what you do..go for it girl....you run you run!
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