Never give up!

[Paraprog]

I have just picked up where I left off 10 months ago and am absolutely delighted (and amazed) that the benefits of those early weeks have not been lost.

I was getting increasing knee pain back then and at age 75 I decided that was it and I had better grow up.

But an old and hugely respected colleague (we were both GPs) happened to tell me about a study which showed real improvement in knees over the course of training for running a marathon. So I had a rush of blood to the head last Wednesday morning, put on my trusty shoes, went out boldly, and picked up straight from where I had left off last April, i.e. straight into Week 8 Run 1. Foolish you may say, but to my delight I found my (albeit amazingly slow) running was perfectly comfortable. In fact there's no question it was much more comfortable than it had been when I first started last year. I kept up the 28 minutes quite easily.

Now I have done 8.2 on Friday and and 8.3 this morning (Monday), and I feel I must share these glad tidings in case they encourage anyone else.

And for anyone who wants further inspiration, the old colleague I mentioned, Dr Hugh Bethell, has enormous expertise in exercise medicine and has a website which I recommend unreservedly: exercisefitnessandhealth.info/