Too Much Too Soon

After the initial euphoria of running for more than 15 minutes, I began to find running boring and monotonous. It was a chore and my joints hurt. There's got to be more to running than this. It's easy to see how people give up.

Determined NOT to give up, I decided to try running off road on holiday a month or so before my first Race for Life.

I was inspired. I had finally discovered what all the fuss was about. There is simply no comparison between running by the sea on coast paths and beaches to the streets of Bristol. For the first time in years I felt free. I breathed in the fresh air, held my head high and wished I could run here all the time. Running really CAN be enjoyable and it felt easy. Rather than thinking "my hip hurts - when can I stop?" I wanted to keep going and run as far as I could.

But disaster struck. After running four times in one week - something I never did in Bristol - I pulled a muscle. I was at the farthest point on the beach when I felt my left calf muscle twinge and then in a moment I collapsed to the ground. My leg really hurt and I knew I had messed up. Running too much, too quickly, without decent running shoes and stretching properly. What was I thinking! I slowly limped back to my family feeling very sorry for myself and a little embarrassed too as I was covered in sand from head to toe. I felt I had failed. Maybe running was just not for me. I was devastated.

I was learning the hard way. I was going to have to approach this running stuff properly if I was going to improve. Looking back at that time I went through a bit of a crash course in running. My physio took me through running style and pronation, and the sports shops kindly advised me how expensive running shoes are! I thought running was all about putting one foot in front of the other, swinging your arms back and forth at speed. How wrong was I?