My Running Story and Beginning Running Advice

So I thought I'd write a little bit about my running history.  I am probably a 'born again' runner, as I used to run in my late teenage years, always had an ambition to run a marathon, but lapsed throughout my twenties (actually, much like my makeup story - very strange). 

I started training, running 2 miles a day when I was about 14, aiming to get into the 1500m event at my school sports day.  However, as I wasn't naturally 'good' at sports, no one recognised my efforts and I wasn't picked for the team.  What was even more galling was when the girl who was picked dropped out after two laps of the track as it was too hard for her... 

This has just reminded me of another incident at school when we were doing athletics during a PE class and running the 1,500m again.  I set off at a good pace and was in second place about half a lap behind a really fit sporty girl.  Our school track was really small, so we had to run about 6 laps to get up to the 1,500m distance.  The fit, sport girl finished ahead of me and the PE teacher gave her the time.  However, when I finished, she told me to do another lap of the track (which would have made me almost in last place), as I clearly wasn't sporty enough to come in second place!  I argued with her, as she clearly wasn't paying attention to who was a good runner or not, telling her that I ran daily.  When eventually she believed me, the third and fourth girls had finished and none of us were timed properly.  I really hated PE - the only event I enjoyed was the running, and even then the PE teacher managed to b*llocks it up for me!

I did used to be a member of an athletics club at the Crystal Palace track, training once a week.  I really enjoyed it, but I never ran any races for them - I just did the training with the distance athletes.  I've never been a sprinter, always a distance runner!

Anyway, I began to really enjoy running during sixth form (when thankfully I didn't have to do PE any more), and used to run around Crystal Palace Park every lunch time.  As my A-levels approached (in 1997), I took to running 5 miles a night to get a release from my studying, and I'm sure it really helped me with my exams.  I then signed up to do the Great North Run with a load of friends just before I left home to go to uni, so I kept up my training throughout my last summer at home, completing the GNR in 2 hours, 11 minutes and 34 second.  I was a bit gutted, as I wanted to do it in under 2 hours, but it wasn't going to happen on the day, so I was just glad to complete my first half marathon!

I sort of stopped running once I'd left home, but in my second year at uni I decided to enter the Brighton half marathon, so I started training again, albeit a bit sporadically (drinking and partying kind of got in the way).  I had flu the week before the half marathon, but I managed to do it in about 2 1/2 hours.  Although my time was far more than I wanted, the course was pretty bad, with a massive hill and then steep steps at the end, and I'd got through it.  After that I just gave up proper running.

Since then, I've tried to get back into running properly on numerous occasions.  I've run along Brighton seafront, ran round the park after work, followed a walk/run programme to do a 5K, ran and walked a 10K which I've done no training for and last year, done Race for Life events on Bristol Downs. I did properly get back into running for a month last summer, before getting injured and giving up again.

However, I do now feel that I have properly picked up the running habit again.  With a competitive 10K in May against my colleagues, I have a big incentive to do lots of training, and the more I do, the more I enjoy it.  I think that signing up for a second 10K in July and a marathon next April will help to inspire me to cotinue training and really push myself, once I've done the first  10K.  Well that's the plan, anyway.  Watch this space.

Anyway, this post has waffled on a bit, without any pictures to show you - sorry about that.  Part of the point of writing this was to say that although I've upped my mileage from zero to 4 1/2 miles (last weekend) pretty quickly, I'm not starting from the same background a beginner would start from.  I have run two half marathons before (one in a decent time) and I used to be a member of an athletics club.  Therefore, when I started training about 5 weeks ago, I was unfit, but I did know what I was supposed to be doing.  What I'm trying to say is that if you are a total beginner, don't expect to be up and running 4 miles within a couple of weeks.  Some people are natural runners and can run 5 miles without any training or build up.  Others find it hard to run for 30 seconds without gasping for air.  There are plenty of beginning running programmes on the internet for all abilities and fitnesses, so if you're interested in starting running, than just put your trust in google and you will find something to suit you!

Let me know if you have any questions etc.  Thanks for reading!  xx