As In Biscuit: I am a runner

I began my running journey in 2018 and I know it will probably sound very strange but I really don’t know how I have managed to actually become a runner and become good at it. It surprises me as much as it surprises everyone around me. I have always been overweight so I hated any form of exercise. My high school P.E teacher humiliated me by making me do cross country with the rest of the class even though she knew I could not keep up with them. I was still out in the rain when the rest of the class were back in school but she insisted I finish the course. Consequently I hated running even more after that. My weight only increased over the years and at my heaviest I weighed nearly 23 stone and I could barely walk. On top of that I broke my ankle in June 2012 and again in October 2015. In February 2017 I joined Slimming World and for the first time in my life I actually managed to lose a significant amount of weight but I didn’t even attempt any exercise until I’d lost 5 stone. It was only then that I went along to my first bootcamp then soon after joined a Clubbercise class. And then in May 2018 my friend Jill told me about Parkrun and we agreed to go along to one together. Parkruns are organised, weekly, timed, 5k events held at local parks and coastlines on Saturday mornings. The first one we ever did we walked it and we completed it in 51 minutes. We loved it and decided to go along the following week and pretty soon we were hooked! Every week after that we did a small amount of running (about 30 seconds at a time) then we would walk again then run again and so on. It took about 6 months before we could run the full 5k course without stopping and that first fully ran Parkrun took us 41 minutes. Jill and I then began taking part in various organised 5k events then progressed to a 10k event and then we decided to sign up for the Great North Run, a half marathon. My friend Helen had also signed up for the GNR and we were both scared about the amount of training required for total novices so she asked me if I’d like to start running with her and we began doing that 2-3 times a week. Jill and I always intended to run the GNR together so her and I carried on with our Parkruns and we also met for weekday training runs and then in April 2019 Jill hurt her leg and had to stop running. Helen and I carried on with our training runs, gradually increasing our distances, but I still planned to do the GNR with Jill. As the date of the GNR got closer and Jill was still out of action it was becoming increasingly apparent that her and I running together wasn’t going to be possible because we were now at different stages of our training and because we realised we now both wanted to take different approaches to our first half marathon. She wanted to take a more relaxed approach and was not bothered about times or paces whereas I had steadily improved and wanted to put my training to good use. Nevertheless I was absolutely devastated and felt I had let Jill down by now agreeing to do the GNR with Helen, despite Jill’s constant reassurances that I hadn’t let her down and she was more than happy to follow her own path. Jill resumed her training by herself in July/August and I had, still have and will always have so much respect for her for picking up her training at such a late stage in the game and doing such long runs by herself. By this time Helen and I had to progressed to 8-9 mile runs and we reached the 10 mile mark about 10 days before the big day. We had agreed to stick with 10 miles and only do the full 13.1 miles on the day itself. Helen and I did the Great North Run together on 8th September 2019. We ran the whole thing and were so happy as we did it in 2 hours 45 minutes. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I’d be capable of taking part in the GNR, which is a legendary event in the North East, so standing on the start line I broke down in tears. And afterwards despite the exhaustion I could not have been prouder of myself - a feeling I don’t often experience! It will always be my proudest moment. Jill and I carried on going to the Parkruns and Helen and I continued running together a few times a week until the pandemic happened. Parkrun was cancelled and restrictions on households mixing came in to force so running with Helen or Jill had to stop. For the first 10 weeks of lockdown I was terrified to leave the house but then my friend Barbara told me to get back to my running and so I bit the bullet and did it. I’d always hated running by myself but I actually started to enjoy it and it was only then that I started to notice my pace gradually increasing. Last Summer I took on the Great North Run Solo 40 runs in 78 days virtual challenge which meant I was running every day or every other day. That was when a rapid improvement really started to happen. I went from running at a 10:30-11:00 pace to a 9:30-10:00 pace in a matter of weeks. And from then on I have slowly seen my pace increase further and in the last 6 months I have began regularly achieving sub 30 5ks and sub 60 10ks. I can’t offer any real words of wisdom for any would-be runners that might have stumbled across this blog but I truly believe that if I can lose nigh on 10 stone and take up running and actually be good at it 25 years after my P.E teacher made me hate running then anyone can do anything. My only real advice would be - just do it!

(Nike - please don’t sue me!)