It's been a while since I really posted about starting to run. At the very beginning, I think in mid January 2012, I started jogging very slowly on the treadmill. I carried on for around 5 months and stopped because it felt boring. My colleague told me about her first 5k and how she trained on the treadmill but it was much, much harder running outside on the day of the 5k race. That REALLY put me off and the thought of me being a 'real runner' was laughable. I'm the least sporty individual in my group of friends.
At the start of this year, my housemate told me she was going for a run as she is training for the marathon in Madrid. It must have been the Sunday roast I had that afternoon and the Christmas padding I had gained, but for whatever reason I asked if I could join her, warning her plenty that I had never ran outside before and I would be slowing her down. She was pleased to have some company and so off we went...3k in and my heart was pounding and I had the greatest stitch (most likely from my love for roast potatoes and gravy). We had a couple of minutes to rest and we set off again. I somehow managed to jog just over 5k that evening and I was just under a stone heavier than my weight back in 2012. I was massively out of breath but it felt good to know and feel like I was active again.
My housemate never judged me and always encouraged the little progress I made as I joined her on some training runs (or jogs). She introduced me to the Nike running app and the little maps of my runs gave me a sense of achievement after each run, and I ended up running to collect these little maps. I received junk mail from wowcher and there was a little discount for the 10k Winter Run, and I joked to my housemate about it - as if I would be able to do that. She asked, 'why not? I'll do it with you!' 3 weeks into my running (about 2-3 jogs a week), we signed up.
I fell ill with a chest cold 3 weeks before the race and was out of training for 2 weeks. Massively gutted. The week before, I put in 4 jogs and built a playlist in the hope the songs would pull me through the times I would find really tiring. When race day came on Sunday, I was so nervous I couldn't sleep and on the day, I thought, 'oh gosh, this is actually happening.' Again, my housemate was positive and excited and ran along with me for the first 3k. I developed a stitch and told her to run on and the annoying stitch stayed with me for the rest of the race. The route had hairpin turns and several inclines, and having to run the route twice was psychologically challenging but reading who people were running for was really inspiring. The music got me through even though there were points I thought and felt like I was running in slow motion! I ran 10k in 58 minutes and 37 seconds. To say I am chuffed is an understatement 
So, for anyone reading this who doubts their ability to start running or jogging due to fitness or current habits, you CAN do it. I didn't stop once on race day but there was a point I ran a lot slower to catch my breath. The point is do not give up on yourself and train. Start off slow and find your drivers, and test yourself bit by bit. If someone told me on my first outside run on Sunday 3rd January, that I'd be able to run a 10k race, I would have gone, 'pfft! Whatever!' Well, it really did happen and I'm going to continue with 2-3 runs a week for a healthier body and a healthier mind. If you're wondering about it, just go for it. I suppose there are lots of reasons why you won't but there are probably just as many reasons why you can. It's just easier not to, right? Try it out. I'm so glad I did.
No Fitbit run & a really great one
Curious if any C25K graduates have successfully completed a 10k?
5k to 10k - best podcast?
And so it begins......
