Cleary the title to today’s blog is a slight overstatement.
I would say I like running a mild amount. I may even go as far as saying that I do even enjoy it on occasion. But love? I don’t think so.
I know many people who love running, people who would actually rather go for a run on a sunny Saturday afternoon than potter down the pub for a cheeky cider or two. These people are insane. Rarely would I choose to skip a pint over even an emergency circumstance, let alone to go on a long, sweaty and frankly quite boring run.
However, as much as I enjoy to protest against these running fanatics, I have come to realise that running isn’t actually that bad after all. Having been a lazy so and so for the majority of my life, I have recently found myself getting in to exercise more and more, to the point where I actually decided running might be a good fitness option.
Working for NHS South Central, it is clear that we are all for keeping fit and healthy (just don’t tell the guys down in Public Health about our biscuit/chocolate/general snack stash ), so a few of us decided that to keep up with the NHS way, we would start the Couch to 5K plan created by NHS Choices. If you haven’t seen it before, take a look here. The first outing was an unprecedented disaster. Running around the business park in the dark and rain did not really make for a great run. We managed 20 minutes of running/walking and eventually headed home defeated. The next week we decided if this was going to be proper running club, we A) had to have a proper route and B) actually run so we mapped out a 3K loop and managed to run most of it without stopping, which to me was a massive achievement as before I started running, I could barely even run to the top of my road without keeling over, let alone 3K!
As the weeks went by, we progressed even further, getting up to our 5K target and running it in about 35 minutes. Enjoyable! Some of us even took part in the Newbury 5K Parkrun one week, and I recorded a time of 32:53 which I was so proud of. Shockingly, now that we run every Thursday (and sometimes even Mondays too!), we are up to running 7K, and the insane part is that sometimes I actually enjoy it!
There is a point to this post (I’m not just blabbering on about boring running for the good of my health you know)
As a running club, we have decided to enter the Bayer 10k which is taking place in Newbury on 13th May 2012. I say we decided, but it was more like everyone else decided and I was viciously forced, But now I have been roped in to competing in this impossible event, I may as well turn my pain and suffering in to something good. So we have chosen to run to raise money for Cancer Research.
Most of you already know why Cancer Research and the wonderful work it does is important to me. I am running this not only in memory of my beautiful Mama, but in the hope that other families won’t have to lose someone they love so much. Nothing could be done to help save my Mum, but the money we raise for Cancer Research may be the difference between life and death for another person.
I am a terrible runner, and this is going to be a huge challenge for me. I have set up a donation page for the 7 of us that are running, so please please please sponsor if you can. Even £1 can make a huge impact on Cancer Research’s work.
I know my Mum would think I was mad for running so far, but above all I know that she would be ridiculously proud of me.
I love you Mum, this is for you.
xxxxxxxxxxxx
