My Running Journey {2015}

It’s Friday night and I’m home in bed. But that’s aight. It’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make for a race.

Just the other day, some friends and I were talking about how 10 years ago if you said “I’m going for a run”, people would be like, “a what?!” …“why?!” …“that’s crazy”. Now, in 2015 the definition of crazy has changed. A marathon is not crazy. A 100km race is not crazy.

My running journey started somewhere in school. Kinda. Maybe. In primary school, I ran. I loved sports day and in my final year I even (jointly) won sports day out of the whole school and got to take the trophy home with my name on it. I hope that trophy still sits in a cabinet at Goodmayes Primary School.

Then came secondary school. I still liked some sports but not all. I suffered from anaemia which meant I had no motivation to be active. At school, the PE teachers picked their favourites (not me) and ignored everyone else. I dropped PE as a subject as soon as I could; I wouldn’t choose to have lessons with those teachers!

Then I changed schools for Sixth Form and rediscovered PE. But PE at A level was all about the science. I’d been attending theatre school during my teenage years too and I’d be able to incorporate dance and any activity I chose into my studies. New school. New energy.

University came and I chose to study Sport & Exercise Science. Don’t get me wrong though, I still wasn’t typically “sporty”. I didn’t join any teams and I bought a gym membership every year which I think I maybe used once or twice. By third year I was feeling a little more active and chose subjects from the PE Teaching (QTS) degree to go along side my dissertation on exercise psychology. Still not “sporty”.

I left University and got a job in Sport Development. In an office. Very inactive. I joined the gym and maybe ran a little on the treadmill and did a few workouts. Then Lex joined our team. She was all into eating healthy and running. So I signed up for my first ever 5km with Lex, the Adidas Women’s Only 5km in Hyde Park in (circa) 2009 (maybe) and ran (jogged) whilst getting overtaken by women in tutus.

Then Alicia joined my team and somewhere along the line we decided to sign up for a 10km. This was the exact time I started this blog. 2012 {read about the race here}. We didn’t train and the one time we decided we should really run the distance once, it was pure torture. The event was torture too, It was literally in torrential rain and I remember us getting taken over by the blind guy. He was fast. We were slow. It was raining. I was wearing mascara.

Then, I must’ve felt like superwoman cos I signed up to a Half Marathon with 4 weeks to go having only ever run 10km twice in my life. {read how that one went here}. My plan for that race was to start at 6:30 per km and stay at that pace the whole way through to get me to finish in under 2 hours 30 minutes. And I did it.

I then did a few more 10kms in 2013 and that was it really. All my races from 2013 onwards are listed on the Train with Elle page – you can see the difference between 2013 and 2014. From 4 events in a year to 16! That’s more than one a month!

In 2014, I started a Wednesday Evening Run Club with the lululemon athletica Covent Garden Store which really helped me to become consistent with running. In all the years, one thing remained the same; I’d sign up for races and never train properly (except a 3-4 month stint of proper training at the start of 2013 which gave a taste for running and it feeling good!).

For 2015, I trained to PB at Half Marathon distance which I did at Brighton in February. Since then, my running has been less consistent as I changed my focus to swimming. With triathlon though, I get to do three things that I have learnt to love – swim, cycle and run! I’m finishing the year with another half marathon and triathlon then somewhere between now and then I will decide where I want to take my running.

I love the social side of running. Meeting new friends, catching up, chatting and not focusing on your pace or splits etc. Exploring the city you already live / work in or getting to know new places. The community and the fun events that come with running are an added bonus. The shoes, and leggings and tops …who wouldn’t wanna look good whilst working out?!

Who knows where running will take me, but wherever that is, I know I’ll enjoy the journey! 

Elle