Bravery in 2013

True to my word - I've done a spot of Sunday Jogging today and I feel mighty fine for the effort (although my legs and back don't feel quite so enthusiastic as my head does right now!)

I've never been one to join in with groups and such like. I work best on a one on one basis and if I'm honest I'm happiest when I'm in my own company. I believe this stems right back to my childhood when I was an only child for the first 7 years and spent a lot of time at my grandparents where it was necessary to keep myself amused.

For quite some time I've been considering joining a running group in my town but (again if I'm perfectly honest) I've not had the bollocks to present myself to a group of strangers for scrutiny! But a few days ago I plucked up the courage to email the Lincoln City Joggers (as they seemed like the least scary of the bunch and also do a Sunday run in the park near me!) to see if I might be a suitable candidate.

I was heartened to get a friendly email saying I should come along on Sunday as there were some walkers in the group who would be happy for me to join them -  although I must say I wasn't too pleased to be having to walk all the way round as I know I'm better than that (just!)

I hope that by joining a jogging club I'll find the motivation that appears to have deserted me in recent months. I've often thought about going out for a run but put it off for whatever reason. Knowing that I have to be in a certain place at a certain time will encourage me to turn out (at least - that's the theory)


Setting my alarm to wake me up on Sunday morning I did wonder if I was a bit bonkers - but as you can see from the picture I did get a whole extra hour and a half in bed compared to a work day so that's not too bad! Even when the alarm went off I still wasn't 100% convinced I was doing the right thing. My daughter was going to come with me but cried off at the last minute (I've got a cold...too poorly to come out to play)

I voiced a concern to Neil that I wasn't sure about heading off to a local park so early in the day to meet a bunch of strangers - but I think I was just trying to wriggle out of it!  He did offer to drive me down there to make sure all was ok but I'm a brave soul and turned down the lift, promising not to go into the park until I spotted the rest of the group, and keeping my phone handy - just in case!


After doing a good amount of stretches (the ones the physio gave me for my back ) I set off into the early morning mist at a slow walk which soon ended up as a jog as I got into a panic as to whether I would be late and find they'd gone without me! Even though I'm not a groups person I'd already told quite a few friends that I was going along today. My reason was to put the info in the public domain so I could expect somebody to ask how it went? I would really feel like a pillock had I not gone and had to admit I'd woosed out!

I can always rely on Adrian to show an interest so I was very pleased to tell him that things went fine. The joggers were small in number (3 men and 5 women including me) 2 of the ladies were there as walkers and set off at a good pace. Two of the men and one lady set off at a reasonable jog and one bloke stuck with me and two other new runners. One of those ladies quickly left us and after a while I was also able to leave the newbie group leaving one of the more experienced runners looking after the slower lady jogger.

I was rather relieved that I wasn't the slowest or most unfit and I managed to complete the session at a jog with no walking breaks. About half way round I paired up along side a lady (I want to say girl because she looked very young) and we kept pace with each other quite nicely. She wasn't particularly chatty but it was nice to be running along side somebody and not all alone!

I was very pleased when we got to the end of the run as I was pretty much at the end of my stamina by then but thoroughly enjoyed it all the same.

I hope to make this a Sunday routine.

On Wednesday I'm hoping to go along to the mid week meet. I'm not sure I'm up to taking part in a run just yet as the more experienced runners do about 7 miles or so. I've set myself a target of turning up and joining the walking group however if I can find a slow plodder like myself who knows. I may just run!

Conclusions:

• Going along and meeting new people this morning wasn't as scary as I'd anticipated. 
• I'm not the slowest runner in the world. 
• I rather like being part of a group. Everyone was very friendly. 
• This a nice way to start a Sunday morning.

Thanks for keeping me company on my journey
Netty