into running

i would be interested to hear how you got into running

i my self always did a lot of cross country at school but stopped when i left but the one thing i have always wanted to do is  a full marathon a life's ambition yoy might say

 but you know what it's like  always seem to be saying i'll do it next year then believe it or not at the start of last year we wached run fat boy run on dvd and i got to thinking that next years were geting fewer and i was getting older and the body was beging to fall apart and if i didn't do it now i may never get there

 so basically got back into running due the that one dvd

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Comments

  • I always enjoyed watching and taking part in it . It was the sport I was good at  at school and my PE Teachers encouraged me to join a club and to take up the sport .
  • My gym was entering a relay team into the belfast marathon and I volunteered for the 4.7 mile leg of it.

    That was my first experience or road running... 6 weeks later I id my first half marathon (2006) and I just kept it up from there.

  • I went to support my girl friends brother in a 3 marathons over 3 days event and then a few months later do a 50 mile ultra. I thought it was amazing that anyone could actually do things like that and it inspired me to get off my lazy backside and give it a go.

     I started with an 8 week plan to get up to running for 30 minutes. After feeling really happy about completing that, I just carried on going.

  • It started with a 'significant' biirthday.  In the run up to his, my boss gave up alcohol, meat, smoking etc etc in a bid to get his weight back to where it had been 10 years previously.  I decided there had to be an easier way and started to run!
  • A suspected heart attack at 30 and being morbidly obese did the trick for me!!!! image
  • my ever growing stomach and cause I finaly could. I had a small car accident which caused many problems and ended any sports for me. Till after 5 years of varous therapies and hard work I could finaly do what I had spent so many years watching and wishing - the London Marathon - and I did.
  • Gave up smoking - got fat but discovered I could do bouts of exercise (chasing the kids, etc.) and not feel completely f*&%ed for half an hour afterwards.

    Lost weight when I realised how fat I'd got, then got a dog and that was it.

    Absolutely hated running when I was at school, so quite a turnaround!

  • Found that running took away a lot of the stress I was getting from revising for my A-levels. After a run I found my head was a lot clearer instead of buzzing with whatever I'd revised that day - actually let me get to sleep! Have struggled to get consistency in my running and end up taking a few weeks break, just due to good surf conditions, but I intend to really get in to it when I hit Uni next year image

    Is it worrying I've already looked at the 4Deserts series image
  • It was January 2008, I was playing in a Rugby 7's tournament in April, so I decided to run a bit to help out when playing in that. 20 minutes on the treadmill 3/4 times a week until after the tournament, then started doing a bit more over the summer, before starting seriously at the start of this year.
  • What gave me the kick up the bum - quite simple really.  Liverbird!!!!

  • Cheering my sister on at a race 4 life and thinking ... I could do that!

  • I always hated running and avoided it like the plague. This didn't stop my "friend"  entering me for race for life.

    I figured once I was signed up I may as well do it properly so I embarked upon a beginner 5k programme. 

  • I ran at school, and was good enough to win the 800m & 1500m at sports day and the annual cross country race, but I never actually did any specific training for it, I just turned up and ran. I occasionally went to the county cross country trials and got blown away by the proper athletes, but nobody ever encouraged me to take it seriously. I knew that I got better the further the distance – at 16 I ran round a 20 mile sponsored walk in the Shropshire hills in around 2:50 having done no training at all, but I didn’t realise that was actually pretty good – there was no internet in those days to look things up. Then when I left school I just stopped running. 

    Go forward 22 years and I’m a slightly overweight 40 year old doing no exercise. I’d been saying to myself since age 16 that one day I’d do a marathon, but I’d never actually done anything about it. Quite by chance one day I discovered that my wife had entered the Great North Run. This came as a complete surprise as she had never shown any inclination towards running, or indeed to any exercise at all, and to cap it all she has knees that you can hear grinding when she goes up and down stairs! I decided that if she was doing it then I needed to do it as well. Entries were long closed, but fortunately I was contracting at the main sponsor at the time, so managed to get a place through them.  

    My first run at the end of June 2003 was 2.5 miles, which to my surprise I got through without stopping. I did a few more runs up to 4 miles then decided to join my local club as I knew I needed help. The wife meantime did a couple of sessions with the Running Sisters before realising that she is not a runner and that her knees simply wouldn’t take it. I was hoping to break 2 hours at the Great North Run, but I started way too far back and ended up with 2:08:54. The important thing though was that I had discovered something I really enjoyed doing – I’d truly caught the running bug. 

    Six years on I’m running 1:30 for a half and very close to a Good For Age marathon time. And I’m chairman of the running club.

  • P.E. teacher told me to go and join Notts AC when she saw I could run 100m pretty quick. 5-6 years later....
  • Did X-country at school, up to County level.HATED it but was dragged by my Dad. Gave up as soon as I could. Started again a year ago at 26, really wish I'd never stopped. That probably applies to quite a lot of people!

  • Did cross country at school, and prefered running to team sports and 25 years later i'm still running though i prefer longer distances these days.
  • Had cervical cancer last year. For a few weeks I didn't know if it had spread or not and decided that if I got through it I'd start looking after myself better.

    Lose weight, get fit and make the best of my life. image

  • A work colleague asked if I fancied running a 10k - when I stopped laughing and picked myself up off the floor I pointed out that I couldn't run for  5 minutes never mind a 10k - then I began to wonder why not.

     That was July and have done a couple of 10ks and will be in half mara in Feb 

  • I was fat and running was the only thing that made sense to me in order to lose weight.
  • I wanted to be fitter, but had a pathological hatred of running. A friend who runs ultra marathons told me the only way to get over it and motivate myself to get out was to sign up for a race, that handing over cash would give me a bit of a shove. And then dared me to put my money on the line!

    8 weeks of fear-induced training and a half marathon later, the bug had taken hold!

  • my sister challenged me to a half

    i'm super competitive with her so my aim was purely to beat her (which i did, cos she dropped out image)

    and sort of caught the bug from there.

    i do remember watching london mara on TV when i was little though and thinking 'one day, i'll do that'. i've entered for my first mara next year...

  • A few things happened in my life which made me take a good look at myself.  I realised that I used my asthma as an excuse not to do anything at all and I decided that I was going to change that.

    Running was the one activity that was guaranteed to trigger my asthma and all of my worst attacks had happened after running for a bus, running to catch up with friends etc.If I could conquer the asthma then I could conquer the world.

    I started off running for about 30 sec, very slowly on the treadmill at the gym and built up from there.  Now my asthma has almost gone and I can't remember the last time I took my inhaler.  Conquering the world is taking a bit longer.

  • Started on a diet, once i dropped to 20st realised i could run again. Went out realised v quickly i could not run at all (100m max!) so kicked myself ip the ar5e and started the run-walk-run beginners programme. 5 months on i've now lost 4 and a half stone, and run my first 10k in a little over an hour non stop, entered at half marathon for march and run up to 15-20miles every week.

    My friends are amazed, i feel great and i have a whole new wardrobe of new clothes.

    If anyone is reading this thinking, hmm maybe i shoudl start - DO IT. It'll be the best thing you ever do.

  • Like lots of people, I hated running and any other sports at school. Four years ago, I signed uo for a charity bike ride - 275 miles in 4 days. I soon realised I needed to get fit and started running as part of my training. At first I could barely run from one lamp post to another without feeling like I was having a heart attack, but eventually I managed 5k without stopping. Never looked back after that really. I still cycle, and last year took the leap into triathlon. Now my friends and family look at me with pity when I say i'm off out for a run. They still don't get why I push myself to do these things, but it's simple really. I don't do it because I need to lose weight - i'm naturally slim - but I enjoy the sense of calm and achievement exercise/running gives me. Keeps me sane I reckon. image
  • PruePrue ✭✭✭

    An inspiring mate image  After having my little un when I was quite young.  I joined a mother and baby group, where I met some great people.  One of them was to become one of my best mates and my running buddy (The Juicer).  She inspired me to have a go, have a natter, have time to think, time to yourself, push it further,  enjoy running and to find yourself and new places to run....   Never looked back image That was nearly ten years ago! 

  • I did cross country at school a very long time ago and although I enjoyed it , like many others I stopped once I left school. 

    Forward 40 years, my daughter said I needed to loose weight as at the age of 55 I was a 'heart attack waiting to happen', and to achieve this before walking her down the aisle a year later. 

    Reluctantly joined a gym.  Absolutely hated the treadmill.  A work colleague who ran suggested running in 'fresh air'.  It was the best thing I ever did!   That was around 5 years ago and since then have completed 2 marathons, 5 halfs and many 10k's.  I now enjoy running in all types of weather, only problem is that it is so addictive and I need to run at least 3 times a week to keep me happy!

  •   

          I did fell and road running and joined a running club but I was not fast enough for them and kept being abandoned on dark moor road in winter and  I lost interest and stopped running, that was in 1975. In March/April 2008 I started  walking and jogging again and it wasn't long before I was back running and did my first 10k November  08 and two more before the new year. In January 09  I joined a running club again with totally different attitude to slower runners which really gave me a boost.  I have since done six offical half marathons plus one at the begining to see if  I could do it plus many various races. I was awarded a trophy at the club dinner of most inproved runner for 2009 and I am now entered for the London marathon next year 2010. I think I can safely at 65 I have got the running bug bad.

  • Well done, WPM. One of my running club mates started running at 60 and has done 10 marathons and countless park runs and XC races. He's now 74 and still going strong.image
  • I used to think that I hated running. At school, I was this lanky thing that was brilliant at sprinting, hurdles and all the 'athletic' stuff, but cross country or anything longer than 200m, I always found really tough. As an adult, I was a bit of a gym bunny until finances meant that wasn't feasible anymore.

    Anyway, I live in a lovely spot right on a London canal and was feeling unfit and figured hell, running is free, and maybe it isn't as bad as I remember.

    But, the final kick up the bum - and don't laugh! - was learning that one of my favourite authors, Haruki Murakami, is into his running. I'm an aspiring writer and I thought that if my hero finds it to be an inspiration for his writing, it's GOT to be good. image

    Seeing the almost instant difference (like, just three or four runs on the RW beginner schedule!) to my body had me completely sold and I'm still upset that I had to stop for a couple of months recently.

  • Ran at school xcountry, our team was good (we lost few races, we often provided the local county champion), but I was mediocre, normally the sixth placer.

     Ran at uni, again just mediocre ( I ran for Cambridge - the 6th team!), but always enjoyed it.

    Then nothing until about 50.

    A night of passion with a younger girl made me want to keep up with her, and I've never stopped since.

    I want hot sex for another 30 years.

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