Putting my C25K experience to good use!

[juicydee]

I had such a great run tonight after school. I ran with a bunch of 11 year olds who are running 2012 km between them for charity over a few weeks; the route went alongside the Thames near the school between Hammersmith and Chiswick, which was very pretty if very full! I said I was slow so they made me 'rear pacer' ie I had to stay with the very last person and encourage them. Most of the kids zapped off at immense speed (quite scary for any passers-by as there were about 30 of them) but the very last person all the way round was a rather overweight lad who could barely run for 20 seconds and walked most of it (despite my exhortations!) but he did complete it. We got a great cheer when we arrived back at base. The funny thing was that the run was set at 4.5km, but because I kept running back and forth and round this boy as he was walking and I couldn't run that slowly (which must've driven him mad!!) I clocked up over 5km on my Nike+ !

It was great to help someone achieve something like that, but I admit that the most satisfying thing was when the email went round asking for staff to help run with the kids, for once in my life I could actually say 'Yep - I can do that!' And the atmosphere among the staff was great too - after all, we were all runners, who as we all know are a fantastic bunch of people!!

I get to do it again next week - and the week after!!

To think I get paid for this too.....

[Deryn61 Graduate]

Fantastic! What a great experience!

[sfb350 Graduate]

That sounds great - wouldn't it be lovely if the big lad starts to try running for longer ?

[juicydee Graduate in reply to sfb350]

Yes indeed - he has another session of this in June so I did suggest he tried a bit of jogging in between - I also mentioned the podcasts too, and I'm going email him the link to them (not that he seemed very keen, but I think he might have been in some pain at the time.... bless ). And actually we did the 5k (or 4.5k in his case) in 44 minutes which isn't a lot slower than my personal best. We all had to start somewhere, after all!

[Tapira Graduate]

Great stuff juicydee - we'll team you up with Jamie Oliver and get kids eating well and exercising appropriately. Can't do better than that!

[juicydee Graduate in reply to Tapira]

Love it!!

[NatG]

Awesome Juicydee........if I'd had a teacher as supportive and gently encouraging as you for PE when I was in school I may never have got as overweight and innactive as an adult as I did.....I hope the young boy seizes the opportunity you're providing him with.....lovely to read, and lovely to see that you've put your c25k experience to a fab use

[juicydee Graduate in reply to NatG]

Aw, thanks NatG! I have to say ALL the teachers were really lovely and encouraging... and interestingly perhaps, not one of them is a PE teacher; they are teachers of other subjects (Maths, Music, Biology, Design Tech, French/German) who just love running and want to share that with the kids as an extra-curricular activity. I'm not sure the official PE staff would be as gentle......

Anyway, I feel like a whole new world has opened up to me, and I'm very proud to be part of it!

[AliB1 Graduate]

sounds fab!

[TJFlute]

This sounds like a great experience and fun for the children too.

[lucylocket10 Graduate]

You must have felt so proud when you were able to say that you would help too! x

[juicydee Graduate in reply to lucylocket10]

Oh my - did I !! And a certain amount of kudos at lunch today - especially when I said I often run to Green Day....... . To misquote Monty Python: 'I'm not old - I'm 55!!'