I Did It!

10 weeks ago I had a moment of madness and signed up to a local running club.

I have seen a few too many birthdays ending in a zero and decided that it was time to get fit and lose a bit of excess weight in the process. Personally, I find gyms very boring and much prefer being outside than indoors. We are lucky to live close to a beautiful nature reserve so have an outdoor gym on our doorstep. We also have a big holiday booked for later this year and wanted to find something that I could take with me wherever I travelled, and to compensate for all the tempting food and cocktails on offer on board. As a lovely surprise, my husband agreed to join with me

We meet twice a week in the evening and even get set homework for the weekend. Back in March, we turned out in sweatshirts and coats in the dark for our first session which involved a combination of walking and short runs around a car park. Over the weeks, the evenings got lighter and warmer as the walks got shorter and the runs got longer. Week 5 the group headed out from the car park and onto the roads. Unfortunately, I actually missed this week as I was away, but kept the momentum going with my own run at the weekend. The joy of managing first 5 then 10 then 20 minute runs made up for the aching legs and bursting lungs and last night, in week 10, we were both presented with our 5 kilometre certificates. We now join the 5k runners group so will be running around 10 miles a week. There is a 7k and a 10k group but I am happy to stick with what I have achieved and improve my time.

I love swimming so now have 2 ways of keeping fit whilst away so no excuses. I have also been looking up some lovely walks and runs we will be able to do in the ports of call on our cruise in the autumn which will be a different way to explore from the usual tour bus.