The Next Steps (or Plods, more accurately!)

After successfully running the 5k santa fun run, I carried on with the odd plodding session to keep my fitness ticking over, whilst I decided which 5k race for life to enter.  I was already thinking to myself that maybe, just maybe, I could run further than 5k if I really trained hard and kept going.  I was thinking it to myself but I didn't have the guts to say it aloud!!
Not until one day in March 2007.  Pete and I were heading into Reading to do some shopping at the Oracle, and we noticed that we were passing a few people walking along wearing foil blankets and medals and looking very happy.  We saw some signs along the A33 and soon realised that earlier in the day, the Reading Half Marathon had taken place, and these were obviously all the happy people who had finished the race.  A completely crazy thought crossed my mind that maybe I could run a half marathon, but I quickly shook it off when I thought about how it must feel physically and mentally to run 13.1 miles. That's 10 whole miles further than I had ever managed to run before.  No way!
But the idea wouldn't leave me and I had all these thoughts flitting around my head like butterflies.

Imagine how amazing it would feel to achieve that!  Imagine how much money you could raise for Cancer Research!  Just think how much fitter you would be, you might even lose some weight along the way!

And so it came to be that I found myself writing an email to Sarah in which I tentatively mentioned my thoughts about about whether it might be possible for me to ever run that far.  I was thinking, maybe if I trained really hard I might be able to run the Reading Half the following year.  The response I got from Sarah left me excited and terrified in equal measure!!  Having been one of those people walking around in a foil blanket grinning inanely with a medal round her neck that day, the email she sent me contained a load of information about training plans, possible races and a forum I should visit on the Runners World website called Inspire.  It would seem that Sarah was more confident in my abilities than I was, as she was adamant I would be running a half marathon before the year was out!

I joined the forum, printed off the training plans, entered various races, bought myself proper running clothes and got my gait analysed for the right pair of trainers at a proper running shop (I was advised that the £10 kids ones I had at the time were not going to cut it!).

And just like that I had become a runner.  Not because I had the kit or because I posted on a running forum, but because something in me had changed, and been gripped by this sport and the sense of achievement, and possibilities it presented to me.  You see, once it has you hooked, it doesn't matter if you go long periods of time without running.  You are still a runner.  You will more than likely go running again one day soon.  The reason for this?  Well I'm sure it's different for other people but for me it is escapism, it is challenging, it is a sense of achievement like no other.  It is the things you see when you're running, like beautiful sunrises and sunsets, frosty fields, wildlife, rainbows, hail and torrential rain.  It is the sense of camaraderie and the knowing look and nod you get from other runners when you're plodding along.  It is the way it feels when you have one of those runs where you feel like you are flying!  And how you get through the ones where you feel like you're dragging a dead weight.  As one of my running friends recently posted on facebook;