The story so far

The aim of this blog was to be a diary of my training as a complete novice at running as I attempt to run a 10k race, hopefully followed by a half marathon and then the full 26.2 miles of a marathon. I may have cheated a little already, because knowing how easy I find quitting and how easily distracted I can be when faced with something I don’t want to do, I’m not at day one of my training. I’ve been training for two months (not that successfully) and now that I’m more confident that I won’t quit, I’ve started the blog.

The blog is still what it says on the tin – the diary of a very lazy girl who is trying to run a distance to be proud of, and I’m still collapsing in a sweaty heap after every run. I still have to coax myself to the gym with the promise of a KitKat later in the day, and I’m still very unfit.

I’ve never been into sport. I had a permanent note from my mum throughout most of senior school to excuse me from PE. This year though, I decided to put those days behind me, get off the sofa and start running.

My training began sometime in May when I joined a gym and began embarrassing myself on the treadmill. I began with the tedious run 2 mins, walk 2 mins routine which I’d read was the best way to start getting your endurance up. If I try something new, I want to be good at it straight away – which is why I usually give up after a few attempts. I want results, I want to see big numbers on the display of the treadmill rather than the pathetic 1.5km I’m capable of.

So after not very long I ignored conventional wisdom and the ‘training schedule’ I’d diligently printed off the internet to try running as long as I could, as hard as I could. I gave myself the target of running non-stop for 10 minutes before the end of May and on 19 I achieved my goal with much panting and a very painful stitch.

In June I gave myself the target of upping this to 15 minutes of non-stop running and just five days into the month I managed it. All was going well, perhaps too well and disaster couldn’t be far off.

A week or so later I got a cold/sore throat and with it came the perfect excuse to avoid the gym. I’d heard all the stories of stupidly fit athletes who exercised with a cold and dropped down dead – I wasn’t taking any chances. Staying on the sofa, watching Hollyoaks and eating KitKats seemed like far and away the best option.

After two weeks of skiving off the gym (it’s so much easier when you don’t have to forge a note from your mum) I was back and anticipating another PB. But no, my two-week break had put me back and I was struggling to get 8 minutes on the clock.

Today, after a month of trying to get back up to my previous record of 15 minutes running I had a breakthrough. 20 minutes non-stop running and a distance of 3.6km! So that’s the story so far. I’ve come quite far but there’s much, much further to go.