A year of running and living in a new city: how running helped me settle in

It’s a year since I left London and moved back up the A1 to Peterborough. It was emotional leaving the city I’d lived in for nearly half my life. Peterborough is where I’m from originally but it hadn’t been home for a while. I’d moved to London aged 22 and spent 18 years there, living in various parts.

But we needed more space and fresher air, so I wound up my running groups and packed our small flat into two moving vans and off we went.

Running has made settling in and feeling at home a lot easier – it has introduced me to the city that I lived in before in a new way and helped me meet people. But it hasn’t all been smooth sailing.

“You’re ruining moving day”

Last March, when we moved, I’d been trying to train for Manchester Marathon. It wasn’t going well. Moving was stressful and the uncertainty of a move date meant we were on edge with most of our stuff in boxes from around Christmas time. When we eventually moved, we discovered we had plumbing issues and I missed a local 20 mile race I’d signed up for. Despite getting up to 17 miles, I decided it wasn’t time to train for a marathon and besides, after waiting so long to live in this house, I didn’t then want to go away for a weekend so soon. So I withdrew.

Last March was also Mothers’ Day, and I took this as an opportunity to drag my son along to his first Junior parkrun. It was also his last. He told me “I liked that, but I don’t want to do it again”, and while I don’t think I’m parent of the year, I’m definitely not a pushy one.

Making running buddies

I did, however, meet Gina who was race directing (and who I knew through social media already) and arranged to go on a run together. We’ve shared many more miles since and she’s shown me some great local routes.

I live close to a large country park and can run for miles without bumping into anyone. It’s a world away from Hackney and I’ve run more and more on the trails. Growing up, I lived in the middle of the city and wasn’t very active, so living here it feels like a different city and I’m very much a different person.

Joining a club

It took until the end of last year for me to get around to joining a running club. I don’t know why it took that long – probably because it’s always awkward putting yourself out there and meeting new people, however friendly they are.

I joined Bushfield Joggers and went along to my first session in January. So far I’ve only made it down twice (I tend to run in the mornings or lunchtimes and clubs are traditionally in the evening) but I’ve run a cross country race for the club, and wore my vest at last week’s half marathon. I also met another new member, Kathryn, on my first time at the club and we did a long run together before her marathon training runs got too long for me.

I wore my club vest last week to a local-ish half marathon. I’d gotten a lift there with Amy and Kirsty, two runners I’d met via Instagram. At the finish line I bumped into another Bushfield Jogger and one of my runners/Run Leaders from Finsbury Park. It felt like a fitting end to a year of running and living somewhere new.

Moving somewhere new is a challenge, but running has been my constant, helped me settle in and helped me appreciate my new life.