Just Keep Running

So here is my first post on why I’m choosing to talk about running and what got me here.. if you’ve read the “About” section of the site this post sets the ‘scene’ on my running aspirations. First and foremost I am not an elite athlete or anywhere near good. To put this in perspective my PB (Personal Best) for a 5km Race is 20:18 (Run on 18th December 2012) and that is after about 3 years of injury free running. The top guys can do a 5km Race in about 13-15mins. This post or this blog is not about bragging about how fast I can run or how far but rather sharing my experiences as a ‘normal’ person who started running to keep fit and if you are also in the same boat to hopefully give you that inspiration to do the same.

2010 – was the year it all began..I was the victim of too much work and not enough physical activity and something had to change. I made the choice to get back to running and slowly started going for easy runs (15-20mins jog/walk). To motivate myself I signed up for the Round the Bays 7km in February. My main goal was to just finish it and then continue on. I managed to do the 7km and thought, “well if i could just keep myself moving maybe next year in 2011 I’ll try the Half Marathon”. 2010 didn’t really go according to plan in terms of running but I managed to keep myself relatively fit by way of regular easy runs and mountain biking now and then.

2010 Round The Bays 7Km Result

When the 2011 event opened up I signed up for the Half Marathon and also made it a habit to go for a run every other day. So basically I was running two-three days and my mileage per week varied between 20-40kms. With the 2011 RTB half marathon my goal again was to finish it. Unfortunately I over did my runs a bit more than my body was accustomed to and injured my calf muscles that it became really painful so about 3 weeks leading up to the 2011 event I wasn’t running much at all. With some advice from a physio and some strength exercises I was able to start and finish my first Half Marathon!

2011 Round The Bays Half Marathon Result

In terms of running 2011 was a good year – I kept up my running and signed up for the Wellington Half Marathon in June the same year. I was able to better my time and complete the event without any injury during training.

2011 Wellington Half Marathon in June

In July 2011 my life completely turned upside down in very tragic circumstances. I could have gone either way and my personal loss and grief was great. The only escape I had was running, so I kept running. It was the only thing that made sense and kept me going. By early 2012 I was somewhat focused and back on an even keel and signed up for 2012 Wellington Round The Bays Half Marathon – by this time I was training with a different attitude and wanted to run 1hr:45min in the half.