The day I started running

Amazing wonder woman running costume by The Princess Runs

I was the girl in school who liked art and drama and chose table tennis and trampolining over hockey and netball. I was the girl who had about twenty excuses as to why I had to sit out of my Games lessons. I pretty much had a period every week so I didn’t have to go swimming. When I hit adulthood I was still a skinny little thing so I managed to carry on avoiding exercise as I had noone to answer to but myself. Now however, at the age of 28 my body has had other ideas. All those years of chocolate cake and icecream have caught up with me.

I always wished I was good at team sports. I like the idea of netball, hockey, football and even tennis. Yet I hate being bad at things, and I’m not naturally sporty. I’m naturally rubbish at all of these sports and so I continue to avoid them at all costs.

I’ve had stints at the gym and stints with exercise classes and I’ve got a collection of fitness DVDs but exercise is never something I want to do. Until now.

I’ve recently felt really inspired by two of my friends who took up running. I’m not going to go into detail about their situations, but lets just say it’s pretty damn admirable how far they’ve come. As a result, I wanted in. I could see the positive impact it had on both of them, not just physically but mentally too.

I’ve tried running before. I actually really enjoyed it but I didn’t pace myself and as a result I burnt out quickly and couldn’t get over the “pain” barrier.

So this time - I tried to prepare myself mentally. As a worrier, I found myself asking stupid questions like ‘Well my jogging bottoms don’t have pockets....what should I do?” So I asked the internet. I decided to hold my house keys in one hand and my iphone in the other and as it was a short run I didn’t take any water.

The major problem I have with running is pacing myself. I’m also really good at going “Oh god, I’ve been running for ever - I’ll stop now” and because of that attitude I always end up giving up. This time I downloaded an app called C25k (couch to 5k). The app starts you off by alternating walking and running and over the sessions decreases the amount of time you spend walking. The great thing about it is you can listen to your music and it will interrupt it to tell you when to start jogging/walking again.

After downloading the app, I then set about making myself a running playlist on Spotify. I adore Spotify. I pay for the service because it’s just such good value for money (£9.99 a month - unlimited songs and offline playlists for your iPhone) and using it for my running playlists means I can have a complete mix of different songs. Why I mention it, is because it’s actually one of the biggest motivators for me. After putting together the playlist I couldn’t wait to get out for a run purely so I could listen to all of the awesome songs I’d put on there!

So today I got up, into my running clothes and left my house before 7am and I did it. I went running. Ok it was jogging and walking but still. I did it. What’s more, I really enjoyed it. The park was empty apart from the few runners who had also got up early for a morning run and my playlist was excellent!

Afterwards, I felt amazing. I know it sounds stupid to say I was proud of myself when it was literally only 30 minutes of exercise, but for someone who pretty much hates most forms of sport it felt like a real achievement.

So this was my first run. I’m documenting it here in the hope that I won’t give up and that if I do and post about it you’ll all yell at me to get back out there and try again.

For now though, I can’t wait until my next run. Long may it continue.

My playlist - be warned it’s full of everything from Sublime to the Saturdays to Haddaway!