to run or not to run????

regular readers will remember last summers Million Mile Challenge, where I went from sitting down all day eating cake to walking 500 miles in nine weeks.  Well, since then I have been busy, I am still walking everyday, and I have managed to get other people to walk too.  So far so good.

Now a new opportunity has arisen for me to get involved with an amazing event where people will be inspired to change their health through exercise and movement. It looks wonderful, music, fun and famous people, what is not to like? The catch is that on the day there is the opportunity to run.

Now walking is one thing, I have got that now, I can put one foot in front of another at a fair to middling pace and get myself up hills, down dales, walking is easy.  Running is a whole new ball game.

Many years ago, before motherhood, before fibromyalgia, before gaining weight, I did run.  It was called jogging back in the day, we had trainers and leg warmers and everything.   I was rubbish at it.  I never got very far before breathless and bored I would stop, heart pumping and sweat forming.  I came to the conclusion I am a not runner in 1985. since then nothing has happened to change my mind.

The sixty year old version of me, the one I am currently using, has flaws.  A painful knee that often seizes up, a funny lower back that can let me down and give me pain.  A default position of laziness and a need to always do the head shift thing to even contemplate moving swiftly,  not to mention little legs, almost as wide as they are long, this body is not built for speed.

The big question is, to run or not to run?  There is no pressure on me, I can take part in the event, I can walk and I can have fun. I don’t need to run, but a big bit of me fancies having a go. I get frustrated when people run past me on my walks, their steps are building so quickly, especially when it is cold and damp, I would love to be able to run.

So this morning out for my daily walk I thought I would give it a go, what can I lose? I set my stop watch on my phone and I decide to run for as long as I can.  I am running, one foot in front of the other, quite quickly, it is fine, not difficult at all, I keep going for ages, feeling so proud.  I stop and check my stop watch, one minute thirty nine seconds!!!!  Really doesn’t time fly when you are having fun?  That was possibly the longest minute and a half of my life.  I get my breath back and walk for a bit, before running again, this time for just over a minute.  This running thing is easy!! Except it isn’t.  My knee is already complaining and my heart rate is rising, and breathing normally is very over rated I think as I pant and puff. I walk the rest of the way.

I am not giving up, I need a buddy, someone to run alongside me for a minute or two, someone who won’t mind me gasping for breath and clutching various parts of my body in agony.  Someone with a high embarrassment threshold and who is kind.  I am not sure I can do this by myself, although I probably can, I need to remember that this time last year I couldn’t walk at all and I have come a long way, literally a long way, since then.  It is going to be an interesting couple of months.