Why did YOU start running???

24

Comments

  • i started running because ..... (1) wanted to lose post-baby fat (2) Doc said that asthma would stop me (3) life coach said that i could do anything i wanted to and i wanted to run a marathon!!!

     I ran 21 miles last weekend (furthest EVER) and will be running Dublin mara on 29th Oct!  Goal now is to do 5 mara's in my 50th year including an ultra-50 image (44 now just in case u wanna ask )

  • BTW - am still post baby weight but i think most of the fat is now muscle!!
  • I started running to avoid the fuzz!

  • Got roped into a Race for Life, walked it and thought "hey, I'm gong to run this next year."

    Turned out to be the top of a slipppery slope..... image

  • Used to see people out running and thought - wish I could do that! met a girl at the gym that was involved in a running club asked me to come along, didn't think I'd be able to do it and couldn't believe it when she said 30 mins had gone by and we should be working our way back..and now well...it just makes me feel good! whether I've lost weight or not..I just feel better..and it's my 'Me' time..no phones going, no-one talking to me..no hassel... image
  • Started running to try and help control my asthma.

    That was 20 years ago. There are too many things to mention why I keep it up though.

  • I decided I wanted to get fit so joined the gym at work.  Some friends had decided to do the Sheffield Half Marathon and I decided to tag along with them after the guy in the gym told me 8 weeks wasn't enough time to train for it.  Five years later I'm off for marathon number two and have started to pick up a strange interest in triathlon.  Not sure where that is going to lead just yet.
  • Took up running as cross-training for other sports.  Now I don't do the other sports, I just run.  I like the fact that I can go whenever I like, not just at set times when the sports centre has available facilities.  Also, it doesn't matter where in the world I am - I can still run.
  • I run because I think it would be mad not to.

  • mtbrDotmtbrDot ✭✭✭

    My major reason was that I went on a honeymoon and didn't have my bike with me.

  • Oh forgot! it helps me sleep!!
  • Oh forgot! it helps me sleep!!

    Get coops to chat you up then........you will be sleeping in seconds.

  • There was a time when I had a problem with alcohol. My mates and I would meet up and go on  a session ( a marathon bender.) We would start at a local pub and go round in circles . We never knew where we were going we just followed the leader.

    To cut a long story short. One day I didn't turn up at my local water station. I hung up the booze and  put on a pair of trainers. That was 15 years ago  and this year I have ran 15 real marathons , some point to point some circular and in everyone  I have  drank aplenty at the water-holes and happily followed the leaders . At least now I Know where I am going.

  • I ricked my knee playing football aged 37...
    while it was getting better, I decided I had reached the point (age/slightly overweight) where I couldn't get away with my only exercise being running around like a headless chicken at 5-a-side for 1 hour per week - I knew that I would just re-injure my knee (or something else) pretty much straight away...
    I had never done ANY running before in my life
    but decided, as the lesser of two evils (rather than give up playing footy), to "do a bit of jogging" in order to strengthen up the muscles around my dodgy knee
    this worked a treat - got back playing footy pretty quickly
    somehow never occurred to me to stop running though
    that was 6 years ago
    I'm on course to have taken part in 30 (thirty) races in 2007 alone... image

  • i started running to escape the wife and kids!!!! unfortunately i tend to run circular routes and always end up at home! always in a better and less stressed out mood though!

    i think we all need to keep fit to cope with the modern world - job, families, health etc. and once you start its difficult to stop. lets face it running is the most accessible sport for most people and the cheapest.

    am hoping i can set a good example to said little ones to encourage them to take part in some form of activity lest they hang around in bus shelters drinking thunderbird and scaring the locals.

    real answer = scared of becoming a fat bloater. for reference please look inside virtually every white van or take a trip to any town centre.

  • I always wanted to run...always!  I used to watch the London marathon every year and cry!  So after recovering from a nasty long illness I watched my hubby do the Lanzarote IM and I told him when he finished that I was going to find a schedule and run walk a marathon.  I picked the Dublin mara 05 cos it was on my birthday!

    I trained for 6 months and finished the mara...I cried (literally sobbed!) for at least the last 3 miles I was so moved!

    I then went on to do 2 more marathons (including FLM which was like a dream come true) and 3 half marathons....training for my first IM now *gulp*

  • About 5 years ago, after the end of a very chaotic, traumatic relationship during which I had no control over my life and ended up on tranquilisers, I moved into a tiny bedsit on my own and realised that I wanted to take control over things as I'd abused my body for a few years and become significantly heavier than I currently am.

    Starting out by walking to/from work.  A few months later I decided to attempt running. Had a few goes at trying to run for longer than 10 minutes, stopped in complete frustration at my lack of fitness, and left it until I met my current hubby 18 months or so later.  We ended up doing slightly longer runs together very early in the morning (on flatter routes; I hadn't realised how insane the routes I'd been running were before for a beginner!)

    Hubby ended up jacking it in, I carried on, upping the distance and exploring different routes, and getting fitter in the process.  this year i ran my first 5K, first 10K and first half mara.

    When not injured as I currently am (sob!) I run to feel good about myself, because it seems to be the only thing that truly focuses me and pushes me to achieve.  It's also my main form of stress relief and warder off of depression, hence further frustration at current injured state!

  • signed up for the Notts half in 2007 as the girls in the office were picking on me, i have never been so gratful of being picked on, now to years later i have lost 3 stone and look and feel fantastic,

    what keeps me going, remembering how i sluggish i felt two years ago with no energy or interest in really living and the day that i tried to run a mile and was sick on the road after 5 min. A lesson you have to go through. I can now run with head held high for up to 10 miles twice a week if i want.......i smile ever time i achieve it.

    I am 39 and i look great compared to 90% of my same age group. i never ever want to lose that.

    Edinburgh marathon my first in May 2008 is being trained for now.

    Cheers.

  • ...yeah, i also started when i was real fat and was dumped by an ex - she now wants to rub me in chip oil and call me sir!! Lol
  • Started running to keep fit for mountaineering.

    Now I run because I like running. image

  • Her husband unexpectedly came home early.
  • Unfortunately he could run faster than me
  • Started running so that I could get fit and join the Army. That was 2 years ago.. still not in yet! Soon.. soon..

     J.

  • for lack of anything better to do on a Friday afternoon, I have compiled stats of responses so far:

    Get Fit - 10 

    Lose Weight -  8

    Inspired by watching race - 8

    Feel Better About Oneself - 6

    Bravado/Hell Of It/Bet etc - 5

    Always Run - 2

    Raise Money for charity - 1 

  • Started running, well. Two years and a half a go i was approaching 23 stone, a year later four stone ligghter i neeeded something to keep me focused and keep me losing the weight, and make me continue to exercise, i had kept looking at the treadmill at the gym, it always looked like a nasty dog on a cold January morning to me. i took the plunge, only managing two k's puffing and panting, a year and a half later, now 16 and a half stone, and actualy starting to get a flat stomach and having an upper body that more looks like someone who is healthy rather than a map of the Derbyshire hills, i have completed two half marathons and endless 10k's and mountains of 5k's 
  • DuffmanDuffman ✭✭✭
    I started running as my life had turned to sh*t quit smoking last october, lost job, house, g/f, just before may (a day before my birthday grrr) i decided that i realy needed to do something that would progress and take me somewhere as my life just seemed to be going backwards (i'm calling it my mid 20's crisis) so after last christmas i ran (about 50yards) and was very out of breath, as it stands now, i'm 3stone lighter and tomorrow is my first half marathon. life still isn't great but running helps alot, sometimes i feel like superman i have so much energy and strenth. Running Rocks!!
  • I started to run because my partner wanted to and running together gave her some encouragement. Then I found I quite enjoyed it and miss it if don't go out a couple of times a week, same with her but not necessarily together now as we each fit a run in where we can.
  • Because a visit to the docs revealed high blood pressure, and I was told to lose some weight, recuce stress etc. etc. 

    From past experience, plodding was the only thing that shifted weight for me.   So I started on a RFL training plan about 19 months ago. This time it didn't shift the weight alone, but it did relieve the stress I was under and bring the BP down! Subsequent weight loss means my knees are on more friendly terms with me now when I plod, and I could even manage stairs and frolic mildly after the last HMimage

  • To aid my recovery from a serious accident (severe head injury, multiple fractures after a 200' fall ice climbing) in 2003.  Journey of Recovery has information about my accident, injuries, recovery and running and cycling since.  I did not run at all before the accident and have now run the 186 mile Pembrokshire Coast Path  (6 dyas) and run the 3 peaks and cycled the 550 miles between them (6 dyas) and done a few ultras and a couple of weeks ago raced a marathon instead of just running it.

    I did my first marathon within 18 months of being in a coma in hospital, so I stuggle with the trivial reasons people have for not running. 

    Colin 

Sign In or Register to comment.