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As you may have seen from an earlier thread, I joined a Gym for the first time about 15 months ago. Now at the ripe old age of 56 that was quite a step. I was not overweight as I had lost 3 stones a couple of years beforehand, but was quite seriously unfit which was most noticeable when I went skiing. I was keen to improve my aerobic fitness and was not too fussed about doing weights. However I had never liked running and had probably hadn't run over 400 meters since school. So, quite typical of me, I tackled that "demon" head on by using the treadmill....it was a struggle but within 6 months I was running 25-30K a week in a mixture of 5K and 10K runs, More recently I have started running outside, mainly of country roads, but also cross country. Then a few weeks ago my wife noticed a nearby village was doing an organised 10K/3K "fun run". It appeared quite well organised and supported, so I entered.
My god....I felt like a kid again! I was really looking forward to the event, I was nervous, spent the week before preparing with "build up" runs and getting my diet and hydration correct. I went to a specialist running shop to have "gait analysis" done and the correct running shoes sorted. I purchased a Garmin running watch, "special" socks for £11!. As you can see I never do things by half even for a village fun run!
Anyway, day of the event. I arrived an hour early, got my number pinned to my chest, warmed up and stretched, took my place on the line with 150 other 10K participants and was all set to start. It's then I noticed that I was surrounded by several groups of runners with the same tops....quite clearly club runners. So I took a few steps back so I was just ahead of the fancy dress lot. With a few seconds to go I ran through my mind all the advice I had been given by runner mates (start slow and build up pace, stay focused....yada yada). So off we all go in one big huddle, with me trying to keep a steady slow pace, constantly checking my watch to make sure my heart rate was withing my target....a few people overtaking, all feeling good and then after a bit my watch beeps to tell my my first 1K split time....4'45"....some 45 sconds fatser than I had ever run any 1K in a distance race, on road or treadmill....LOL....so much for advice. I settled down and kept in a slower but steady pace....kilometer after kilometer nice and steady. After 3 or 4K I noticed a woman running with me keeping the same pace, eventually she spoke and we spent the rest of the race helping each other along. Her target was the same as mine, under 1 hour. When I flagged she urged me on, and visa versa....for the last 1K I put on a bit of a spurt and crossed the line with a bit of a sprint with hundreds of people cheering. I felt elated and quickly checked watch to see if I had achieved my goal of being under one hour....54' 10"...my fastest 10K yet.
Well again I felt like a kid....I could not stop smilling and was just so pleased. The official results put me 84th out of 150 my time 54' 23" with the winners time of 35'. Now I am trying to find similar events and hope to do a half marathon before the end of the year. Even now, a couple of weeks later, I cannot believe the joy this has given me. You are never too old to start a hobby interest and indeed setting and achieving personal goals seems improve the quality of your life somewhat.
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