Up and running

I sauntered around the Gosforth Central Park feeling slightly less than conspicuous in my black 3/4 gym pants, black cycling jacket and bright yellow and grey trainers. I was looking for a girl named Kerry but I had never met her before and had no clue what she looked like. I did a lap of the park and heading back towards my starting position hoping that I could muster the courage to ask someone "do you know where the running club meets?". But I'm not a runner. I don't look like one, I don't even look like the kind of person who would contemplate running but yet there I was, looking for Kerry.

As it turned out, Kerry wasn't there but I did manage to whisper my way into the group beginning to form at the entrance. This is a women only beginners running class yet I still expected to feel like a fish out of water and found myself apologising for my lack of experience and fitness before we'd taken even a step.

It soon transpired that I had nothing to fear. Since I'm taller than the average woman I naturally take bigger strides so once we got going I found I wasn't going any slower than the women who'd been going to the class for longer - this being only by virtue of my height though, not through any modestly unannounced secret fitness. We performed a series of short exercises interspersed with 'recovery laps' of the park, the shorter exercises concentrated on short bursts (run away from the trainer for 30 seconds, then once she toots the whistle try and get back to her quicker, that sort of thing) and the recovery laps were more about jogging for a longer time at whatever pace we were each comfortable with. Presumably all aimed at increasing fitness, endurance and stamina while breaking you in gradually.

Feeble as it may seem to anyone else, I was very proud of the two miles we ran around this tiny little park in the middle of Gosforth. The fact that it was held in such a small space meant that the distance never put us off because it didn't seem like we were going very far. No matter where we went in the park we could always see the trainer standing in the middle with the stopwatch and whistle. This is great for me just starting out because seeing a big long straight path ahead of me is likely to put me off but if I can take it in little short pieces ('just this next lamp post, just to this next tree') i'm more likely to keep going.

The recovery laps are structured in such a way that no one is ever left behind. Once there's a sufficient gap between the front and back runners the two front runners have to turn back and circle around the lamp post behind the last person so the people at the front become the people at the back and this keeps cycling round so everyone has to lap back and no one stays at the back. This too I found reassuring because as I know from cycling, there's nothing worse than being stuck at the back and seeing everyone in front slowly disappear into your future.

All things considered, my first foray into running went quite well. I ran further and for longer at any one time than I expected to manage and despite having achy limbs this morning I'm actually looking forward to next weeks session. I'm toying with the idea of going to Park Run this Saturday but think that might just be biting off way more than I can chew at the minute since it's a 5k so I'll have to think about that one.

But at least for now, I'm up and running.