About a year ago, I took up running. I was in part inspired by my officemates and my sister who had all been extolling the virtues of it for the past few months but more importantly I realised that I was falling into the classic trap for editors, of sitting at the computer all day and snacking far too much. With a milestone birthday coming up, I decided that I had to do something about it before it became an impossible task.
So I started with the Couch to 5k programme in the gym, which I highly recommend, but I was beginning to get bored. At the gym the scenery never changes, and it always meant getting up early before work or staying late and losing an evening afterwards. My most satisfying runs of 2013 were whilst on holiday, running around Lake of the Isles in Minneapolis, not far from my in-laws home… My sister quite rightly kept pushing me to run outside when I got back to the UK and finally she convinced me to do it, to prepare for the charity run she wanted us to do together, 6 miles for Sport Relief.
I’ve found it much more rewarding to run outside and gradually I’ve been building up to 6 miles from my 5k starting point (6 miles is 9.66km). The hardest part is finding the time, but the effect has been three-fold; I feel a lot healthier, I’ve lost about 15 pounds since last year and I’m able to concentrate much better at work. It really clears my head and these days I think it’s no bad thing to be disconnected from the world for a while each week!
The Sport Relief run is on March 23rd, my sister and I have a team that she named Run You Clever Boy (though I admit, I hashtagged my running tweets with it already because it made me smile and kept me motivated), and we have a sponsorship page here if you feel like helping us out. You can find out a bit about how Sport Relief puts the money we raise to good use here; http://www.sportrelief.com/