I run..... Because I can!!
Oh yes, here it is, the 1st part - the background.....
My earliest memory of 'proper running' is at junior school, the last few years when we used to do cross country.... I still remember finishing one in winter, as there was snow on the ground, and picking the snow up to cool myself down!!! I then did a bit more at secondary school... Memory says that we had quite a good team, and know I finished one year in top 3 in an inter schools race....
Also, being brought up in Sutton Coldfield, we had the Sutton Coldfield Fun Run, as it was then. Course has changed now, but used to be 10 miles I think, and I have the medals to prove I raced a couple of times! Never really recorded the times, know my fastest was 1hr 50...
Fast forward to having kids, putting weight on, and cancer.... Not me, but mum. So, in 2006 I ran my first
Race For Life ... Pretty sure it took me about 43 minutes, but I was running for mum!! Obviously, being rather large, by the following year I decided now was the time to lose weight, so, I started the weightwatchers, and slowly the weight came down, and in 2007 did another Race For Life and got a better time.... And by 2008 I was down to 33 minutes for the 5k, without training, but also without all the weight!!
Youngest started school in September 2010, and as January 2011 started, I made a New Years Resolution to start running again and get fit... So, joined a gym, and got on the treadmill.... I used my race for life time as my starting point, and in the march, a friend gave me her place in the local Smiles for Miles race and, to my surprise, I did 25 minutes!!! Encouraged, I continued running, but now was finding routes outside, after finding the treadmill rather boring and did my first ever
Parkrun at Conkers in the May and got my current pb of 24:23, but then, due to kids activities, it was my last for a while, but I still continued running entered the national forest 10k in the September, and did it in 54:23.
Dad became very ill end of 2011 and so in 2012, I did no races, but continued my running as much as I could, until, in the august of 2012, dad died. Dad was my inspiration, he was a keen cyclist, loads of trophies, and also ran until knee operations and ill health prevented him, and I remember him running the fun run with my brother... Watching him deteriorate until he was in a wheelchair, and barely able to do anything himself, but still with a very keen and active, was so very hard, and made me realise we only have one life, and we must grab it and do as much with it whilst we have the chance, as you really don't know what the future will hold...
So, over Christmas dinner 2012, my brother and I were talking, and both had the same idea.... 2013 would be the year we both would run the
Great Midlands Fun Run - the name of the original fun run - in memory of dad....
And here, starts the next part to my reason for running....
