Hmm… I’m facing one of the biggest challenges I’ve ever had: I’ve been told to keep this short and not waffle on too much. Speedwork rather than endurance training, I suppose.
I’ll begin at the beginning then probably veer off erratically. I did spend a lot of my time at school hiding in the toilets during Games lessons. If they’d given out medals for that I’d have definitely been on the podium. When 50 loomed on the horizon, glowering like a storm cloud, I thought I’d better do something and joined a women’s beginners running group, whose first session was the day before my birthday. Great fun and, as you can imagine, some chat as well as running. On our two laps of the playing field I calculated that it would take 9 minutes for an ambulance to reach me from Southmead but fortunately didn’t need it and ran about two miles that evening.
I got out of bed the next morning to find that my legs were locked in a crouch position and struggled downstairs saying things along the lines of “Oh goodness me, my legs are a teeny bit sore” on every step. I was still a teacher at that time and hadn’t discovered that running can do strange things to your vocabulary. My birthday presents were… well, I can only remember one, from my husband, which was a copy of Runner’s World. I wasn’t sure whether to feel flattered or look for a divorce solicitor. It had a tag line “Break your Marathon Barrier” and there was a very small voice in my head which said, “Well, maybe one day…”
Then there was the other voice, the sensible one, which I have listened to occasionally but ignored many times since.
Happy running!
Dave |