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Runner Introduction

 About 8 or 9 years ago, I thought it would be good to get into running, and I tried a little bit - going out and running for a while, then walking, then running to the next lamppost, but it seemed like a massive challenge, that I wasn’t up for. I used to sprint at school - 100m race and relay (very rarely the 200m), and I was one of the fastest when I was at middle school. Then I heard about ParkRun somehow, and I started going along to it in 2018. I was a sporadic attender - getting up to be there for 9am was always rather hit and miss, and if the weather wasn’t so good, I wouldn’t go. But I was up for a challenge - like doing a double ParkRun on New Year’s Day, and doing a 5k cross country Beat the Fox run on Boxing Day (including a nip of port half way round!). I had a Fitbit, and I was just about able to work it - and got better with a new one. Then came that strange pre-lockdown period, in about the second week of March 2020 - a time when many of the groups and activities I did stopped - suddenly I didn’t have anything going on in the day or the evening, and so I started the Couch to 5k programme.


I went out regularly - and I took the dog with me too, and I was delighted when I finally finished it - when I was able to run for 30 minutes without stopping. Then injury struck - my first run after completing the programme and my knee hurt so much. It took 12 weeks until I could tentatively run again, so I started Couch to 5k again - and then I hurt my back, so once more I was out of action. I tried some running in November 2020, and then again in both January and February 2021, but I didn’t want to risk further injury during cold or icy weather.

March 2021 saw me starting to run once again - doing the Couch to 5k programme again, this time I did each run twice, so the 9 week programme took 18 weeks (a bit longer, as I had 3 weeks off due to foot pain / injury), and I also started with an extra warm up walk of about 15 minutes. In May 2021 I completed the London Vitality Virtual 10K, in June the Burrator 5k, August saw me complete the Severn Bridge 10k, September the Bideford 10k, November the Bideford 10 Miler, and December - Beat the Fox 5k. Running has obviously now become a habit for me!







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