I’ve become a runner.
One of those people.
It all started back in 2016 with an invite to lunchtime “run club” at work. It got me away from my desk, around the city, and talking to colleagues I often didn’t interact with on a normal day. I found it was good fun.
My colleagues Emily and Ricky pushed me on the runs, and I found that running socially kept me going further and faster than solo runs.
Over time realised I was running 5k and then sometimes up to 7k squeezed into a lunch break. Often this was a bit of a rush to get back in time, showered, hoover up lunch and get back to a desk in time for your 14:00 meeting.
In autumn of 2016 a group of us did The Mighty Deerstalker race down in Innerleithen. It was a bit of a trial by fire, a head-torch race on some very technical terrain including wading through small rivers. But something clicked – this was bloody brilliant! The post-race pint was like nectar from the gods and the endorphin buzz and race camaraderie sealed the deal.
Fast forward to covid lockdown and running became an escape from working from home, and even more important when we were only allowed outside for our government sanctioned exercise. Looking back, what scary times they were.
Since then I did the Deerstalker again, then entered into some 5ks, 10ks, an 18k downhill dafty, one out to Cramond Island and back, and culminating 3 weeks ago in the Aviemore Half Marathon. Of course, being a technology fan, I’m tracking the heck out of all of these runs using Strava. Here is the strava embed for the Aviemore half:
It was wet. Very wet. But I beat my target of sub 2hrs 20! Great scenery around the rain and for the most part an interesting course. There was one rather dull “out and back” section around 15k which was a bit of a slog as I could see the snaking path of runners into the distance. The last 3k was tough with a fair bit of walking until I realised I was practically finished and I found some last energy. Smashed a pie and and an alcohol free beer at the end 😀 .
I’m not sure if I want to run further than 21k. The training commitment was…a lot. At least three runs a week, every week for around 3 months. Ideally with a “long run” on the Sunday – which built up to around 19k in the weeks before the run. With three children it was often tricky to fit these into weekends.
I think I prefer the interesting traily runs like Scurry to Cramond Island, Hidden Glen 5/10k, the Hop Run etc. I’m keen to hear from anyone else who’s done an interesting run that isn’t a boring road 10k. If you know of another interesting run a sensible distance from Edinburgh, please let me know.
Otherwise look out for more running related blog posts and, of course, give me a follow on Strava.