Tell me your running journey

[lovelydays2]

Looking for inspiration and to get fit and possibly have a mental transformation/life overhaul

Started running at 33, 1 year after my last baby. 1 mile to the gym, 1 mile back. I've always been active, but it felt hard!

Fell in love with it. I trained for a half and then ran marathon at 34. Joined a running club. Met lots of lovely, supportive people.

Over the course of 5 years, I ran 1-2 marathons a year, including 1 100k ultra. Ticked off some long term goals - quality for and run the Boston Marathon and obtain a championship place at the London Marathon.

I'm now 42 and peri. I started hating the pressure of racing and I realised I'd achieved what I'd set out to do. I quit racing and long distance running. I still run 3-4 times a week. A mix of slow runs, hill reps and intervals. I now love running for it's own sake. I'm a qualified run leader with my local club and I assist at track, so I feel like I'm giving something back and staying connected.

How exciting to be at the start of your running journey op! After you have built up some slow miles in your legs gradually, I would suggest looking up a beginners 10k plan. There's loads free on the internet. It'll add some structure and introduce different types of workout to your runs. You'll need to do bits of faster efforts to get faster (if that's what you want).

I used to be quite a good runner when very young, think at school, but hadn’t run for years.

in 2021 my friend and I did c25k and carried on running after 3 times a week all that summer and got up to running 10k. Stopped over the winter as was a fair weather runner in those days, but picked up again in the spring and would do 5k a couple of times a week. mostly stopping over the winters.

just over a year ago I decided that wanted to get better at running. I’ve always wanted to run the London marathon, ever since I was a child and being good at running just appealed to me.

I’ve worked hard to improve my pace and distance and now regularly run 30+ miles a week. I joined a running club who I run with regularly including starting track sessions. I compete in local races (10ks and half marathons) regularly where I now actually do pretty well.

I entered the ballot for the London marathon but didn’t get in. My plan now is to try for a good for age place for 2027 if I can get a good enough time in the marathon I’m doing in October. Need to get sub 3:43 to apply, so we shall see. A few years ago it would never seemed achievable at all, but now it might be!

if you have a good inclusive local running club then you may find it helpful to be surrounded by others on a similar journey. I think it’s helped me to improve.

Bumpity bump bump