While talking about the pros and mainly cons of running 100k today, a neighbour made a disparaging comment about sponsoring someone to run “only 5k”.

While I’d heard his opinion many times before, in reality, we all have to start somewhere.

Tonight, while tucking into a post-run peanut butter sandwich, I got nostalgic about how I started running.

If you take a look at my “About” page, you’ll see I wasn’t always the picture of health.

My idea of a run while at Uni was down to the newsagents for a bottle of cheap wine and pot noodle before returning to play computer games or chat on MSN Messenger (yes that does age me).

Through a combination of mickey-taking from my friends, getting out of breath whilst climbing a flight of stairs and falling over in a night club and struggling to get back up, I realised it was time to make a change.

So I decided to go running.

Or in reality, I walked down to the park, ran around the football pitch once and then walked back, hobbling with sore shins.

I had completed barely 300 metres at a pace slower than a tortoise through molasses.

It was a shock. It was embarrassing. It was also a reality check.

I was at complete rock bottom but decided if I needed to shift the weight, I needed to persist so I walked back to the park the next day and made my shins hurt even more. And again. And again.

Whilst this may sound like me either self-flagellating in public or showing off, it is neither.

I just wanted to show that while I am very happy with everything that I have done since, nothing is as hard as making the initial decision to go and run.

Whether it is to lose weight, run for a good cause or just get out and do something new, there is never a distance too small.

Always remember, if you run, you are runner.

Day 5
Total words: 1,341
Total miles: 25.4

#writeandrun31