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How I Got Started Running

I decided to enter one of the Cancer Research 'Race for Life' 5k races as a gentle way into running. I knew that it would be much more difficult to get motivated for training if I didn't have a short-term goal to work towards, and 5k (just over 3 miles) didn't seem like too far a distance. The only problem was that the race was only 6 weeks away so there was no time to lose on the training front.

To begin with, John was my informal personal trainer. He knew so much about running, training, how the body works, what to eat and what not to eat. I was impressed by his knowledge and interested to learn more.

We started off by taking a 'round the block' route of walking and jogging for about a mile near where we live. We walked for about 5 minutes to warm up then used lampposts as markers. We gently jogged from one lamppost to the next, then walked from that one to the next, then jogged to the next and so on. The route took us about 15-20 minutes.

My first runs always left me aching the next day, particularly around my knee joints, and I would get stitches frequently, even if I had not eaten or drank for a few hours. However, as the training increased and my body got stronger and more accustomed to this new form of exercise, the pains gradually subsided.

For the first couple of weeks I did the same route, but gradually increased the amount of time I spent running compared to walking. Then I increased the length of the route, adding on another 'block' to make a route of about 20-25 minutes. For weeks 3 and 4 I ran a route of about 2 to 3 miles, but always stopping to walk if I got too tried or it was uphill!

On Sunday the week before my Race for Life I did a longer route along some of the nearby cycle paths. John told me the route was about 3.5 miles, so I was really chuffed to not only run the entire distance but to finish in good time. He later admitted to me that in fact the distance was closer to 4.5 miles! But this had the intended effect of increasing my confidence, as I knew that I had run further than I would need to for the Race for Life the following weekend.

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