Thoughts on Running

So I starting running. I say running, actually I’m doing Couch to 5K with involves me jogging for a bit, then, when a sexy woman in my ear tells me to, walking for a bit until she tells me to run again. For 25 minutes, three days a week.

I’ve always hated running. I’ve always hated sports but running has always been my least favourite thing to do. I just think it wasn’t sold to me in the right way at school. Once or twice a year we’d all get ready for PE class thinking we were going to be playing rounders or badminton but then the teachers would jump out and say “Surprise!! Cross country day!” This meant we had to spend the hour running around the fields and housing estates around our school. We’d get back caked in mud and completely worn out.

We’d generally know when a cross country was coming up because they’d get the younger kids to do it a few days before, so around that time I always got this really nasty case on ingrowing toenail and my mum (for she is awesome) would always write me a note getting me out of PE for the week. This is how running was sold to me. But long gone are those days.

Now we have pintrest motivation boards, we have YouTubers teaching us the correct way to run, we have really cute Nike trainers to wear. And we have the C25K program app to make it all easy. I built myself up to this. I got the app ready and bought an arm strap big enough to hold my Samsung Note and my house keys, but knew I wouldn’t be able to just go out there and start. I spent two weeks walking along the river, planning routes and listening to podcasts as kind of dummy runs. I figured out how long each route would take and where I could go if I needed some more time. Then I started the C25K.

I’m in the second week now, where I jog for a minute and then walk for 90 seconds. It’s good because it’s still on the easy side for me – I could probably jog for much longer than that. But I’ll keep at it. I actually hate the walking parts because I feel like everyone is watching me and judging me. “Why is she all dressed up to run but only walking” “uhhh keep jogging you fattie!” Of course, I doubt people are actually thinking or saying any of this.

The truth is that the route I take along the river, though gorgeous, is actually a popular route for super good runners, and also for people who want to sit on the grass and drink beer. So when I go out, even though I try to go as late at night as possible, I still feel like I have too much of an audience for my liking. What’s giving me a boost is a running website.

You are probably as tired of people posting on Facebook about their running as I am, showing their routes and improvements and stuff. But actually a friend of mine posted through a website called Runtastic that he was running right then, and the post prompted me to “cheer him”. I clicked through and sure enough, there was a button that would send him a cheering sound into his headphones as he was running in Japan. How amazing is that?! So I joined. The website is pretty great, and it includes lots of routes that other people around me are taking, so I can perhaps switch to a place that doesn’t make me feel uncomfortable about running.

If you also use Runtastic, please add me as a friend! And why am I doing this? Well, I need to get fit still. I still do yoga but I have seen so many people who have taken up running and have just become so fit and healthy that I really want to do the same. Plus, I have a girlfriend here in Frankfurt who runs all the time, and I’d really like to join her once before I leave. Who knows, I may even be able to join the awesome Color Run in the near future?

If you have any running tips, I’d love to hear them!