Saturday 28 January 2012

Janathon day 28: Can I call myself a runner yet?

As planned this morning I decided not to run today, but I didn’t slack off and walked 11.5km instead. 6.5km of that was with way too many shopping bags and my arms were ready to drop off when I got home. It was the first day that I haven’t changed into my kit to do my exercise and it felt strange so I’m looking forward to my long run tomorrow now. I did get the urge to just go out and run but it really is important to listen to your body. For me, Janathon has been a great way to kick start my training, but I want to stay healthy and injury free so I vowed at the start I would be sensible.
I got a pleasant surprise today when I found out that I’m in the March issue of Runner’s World magazine. A few months ago I volunteered myself as a case study for a feature on how to get your running mojo back. I sent this blog post and spoke to the journalist about how difficult I found it to get back to running once my first half marathon was complete. My solution was joining Run Dem Crew and running with friends. I never received any confirmation of when the feature was going to run so it was a good start to the weekend to hear that I made it in. I’ve always had a bit of an issue with calling myself a runner but I guess I’m a little step closer if I’m in a running magazine, right!(That’s what I’ll keep telling myself.)

Running can be solitary and although I enjoy my own company, I found running with friends to be really inspiring and motivating. It helped me to get back in the swing of things and to keep up the training too. Throughout Janathon, I think the most important thing that I have discovered is to not overthink and to just do things. The more you ponder, the more chance you will actually end up not going to the gym or out for that run. We are all different but I like the balance between running on my own and running with my friends. Agreeing to meet with friends commits you to the cause and it is much harder to back out.
We all have to get to know how we tick and what works for us individually but reading the feature in Runner's World today made me realise just how important my friends have been. Not only my friends at RDC, but my Twitter friends too. Throughout January I have received so much support and encouragement and although I am stubborn and giving up has not been an option, having so many people knowing what I have vowed to do has really helped me to knuckle down. I know it’s not over yet but I wanted to say thank you for every tweet, every comment on my blog and every word of support. Janathon day 29, I can’t wait to see you. The same goes for Janathon day 30 and Janathon day 31, I’m even more excited to see you. I think I will feel even closer to calling myself a runner if I can go out with a bang on Tuesday!

No comments:

Post a Comment