Running

I always hated running when I was growing up. At school, I hated when we had to run races and was always the slowest. I then started playing hockey and was getting to a pretty high competition level, however my running and fitness let me down.

At the end of 2009, I discovered healthy living blogs and followed them religiously as they documented all their running and races and it inspired me. As I was sitting on the couch I had the urge to just get out there and run, but I'd get 10 meters and feel like I was dying. I think I actually made it to 7 minutes of continuous, very slow running.

I then discovered Couch 2 5k and the iPhone application for it. I gave it a go and actually found the first week really easy. Run for 60 seconds? I can do that! I was tempted to jump ahead but decided to trust the program and stick with it. I'm glad I did! Although some runs were hard, I pushed through and kept going. 

One thing that I think really kept me going with it was that I told a guy at work about it and each week he would check in with me to see how long I could run for. Each week, I wanted to make sure the minutes would increase so I never missed a run. 

After 8-9 weeks, I was able to run for 30 mins and had caught the running bug. I just wanted to keep going! I ran the Sydney City to Surf (14km) in 90mins however ended up with a suspected stress fracture in my foot. A couple of months later I wanted to try that distance again and did it in 80mins.

My first 10km run was actually pretty soon after I started running. I didn't plan it but The Biggest Loser had just started and the trainers made them run 10km within the first 1-2 weeks. I figured "if they can do it, so can I!" So I mapped out 10km and off I went! I didn't run the whole way, but I was pretty proud of myself. I finished that in 81 mins. In November I ran a 10km race at Sydney Olympic park and finished in 57 mins!

My plan for 2011 is to run a race every month - including 2 half marathons! I'll make sure to update with each run!