Running update

Everyone hates a smug, fit person. I don't want to be one of those, but I do want to share where I am up to with my running because it still astounds me that I can do it! I am hourglass shaped, not remotely sporty, came last in every race I ever went in. It started at the end of January when I decided to stop flirting with fitness, now that I am well and truly over forty, and make a real effort to get some of the many health benefits of being properly fit. I began running in sixty second bursts and have built it up by running three times a week, without fail, ever since.

I have given up on the 'runners' high' I have heard about, I find running hard, but it is a lot easier than it was. When we lived in Central, I ran around the completely flat streets. Moving to hilly Estella was a shock and it took me a while to work back up to running for thirty minutes straight, the uphills really took it out of me!

When I finished the couch to 5k app, Shep said that I needed a new goal, but I was happy just doing a half hour run (with five minutes walking either side to warm up and cool down) three times a week, which is easy to fit in before work. Then, in a weak moment, my friend Narelle and I agreed to form part of a relay team to run a marathon - a real marathon! There are four of us in a team and we each run 10.5k. I bought a new app to get me from five to ten kilometers, and am now in the final week. Just in time because the marathon is this Sunday.

This app is a bit different. It is still three runs a week, the first being a shorter, steady paced run, the second involved jogging then bursts of fast runs and then jogs, or a sustained faster run, and then, for the last run of the week, the time was increased by five minutes each week. On Saturday I was supposed to run for 60 minutes, with five minutes walking either side. As I can't walk for the first five minutes of the marathon, I decided to run through both walking sections, going for seventy minutes! It wasn't easy and I spent a lot of time thinking about calling Andrew to come and get me, but I ran the route of my marathon leg and ended up doing 10.5 kilometers. I started at Wagga Beach, ran past the school , over the very nasty hill on Red Hill Rd (Red Hill perhaps?) and dow to Jubilee Oval.  I'm not fast, and coming last is a real possibility, but at least I know I can run the whole way.

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