At the end of last year I made it my goal to get to a level of fitness that meant I could run the distance between home and college (8km). Parkrun helped me to get more comfortable with running five kms and helped me to run faster. The loss of car parks at college provided the motivation for some in our community to up the exercise and start running or cycling to or from college. But apparently not me. I talked about running home but kept saying I wasn’t ready. And it was too hot.
I think one turning point was on Friday of research week when I went for a run with three guys (friends, neighbours and fellow third year students) and kept pace with them. One (who was running slower than his usual speed for the sake of the rest of us) encouraged me to just bite the bullet and do the run home from college. I told myself I would start running home during term two (only a week and a bit away).
Cue wet and windy weather this week.
But I still did it. Two neighbour–friends who would normally run home on Tuesday afternoons said they were happy to run in the rain so I went with them so they could show me the shortest route. We wore rain jackets, I swapped my glasses for contacts (luckily I still had some in my old script) and jumped through the puddles and around fallen branches. It was actually fun being in the rain but not caring about getting wet.
It was probably a bit crazy to run my first 8km in that sort of weather but I’m so glad I’ve proved to myself that I can do it. I’m also glad to know that running in the rain isn’t all that bad (so now I have no excuse on a rainy morning!). I plan to run home from college every Tuesday and hope to eventually add another day, perhaps Thursday morning or Thursday afternoon, and still continue Saturday morning parkrun.
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