![]() Yifter the shifter they called him……. This was the start….. A 10-year-old watching the Moscow Olympics on the telly in 1980. This guy just took off on the last lap. Wow! – The drama of it all - the others seemingly going backwards, all anguished faces and flailing arms as this guy sped off into the distance. And there I was – miserable summers spent indoors, suffering severe hay fever, all puffy eyes and wheezing lungs. Frequent hospital visits for treatment were the norm. No running outdoors for me. School athletics often saw me side-lined with a sick note. Yifter the shifter had gone, replaced by Sebastian Coe and Steve Ovett at Los Angeles 1984. The London Marathon featured on the telly. More drama, more excitement, but now, thanks to an inhaler and weekly hay fever injections, I was able to participate. Sports day yielded a 1500m time of 5:20.6, and my 800m time was 2:48. Trying to replicate Coe and Ovett’s performances on the track, the reality was a bit different – being able to breathe at the finish was enough! However, the whole concept of endurance running fascinated me. The inevitable loss of interest in my early work years followed as I discovered wine, women and song – a familiar story to many; and a fairly sedentary life beckoned. Then working in Germany in my late 20s to avoid spending every night in the bar, I was talked into going for an occasional run with a colleague. Our route went up “the hill”. Short and sharp, my first attempt to run up it I was almost sick! Legs like jelly at the top, it became the focus of each subsequent run. Eventually able to run without stopping, it became enjoyable, and I started spending more evenings running rather than drinking. This was the start (again)! Fast forward through a few years of sporadic running, with no real idea of what I was doing and with plenty of injuries, and I found myself at my first Standalone. With a proper training plan from Runner’s World I became a runner! A discussion with a club coach met at work convinced me to join a club (he actually tried to get me to join his club!). He said it would work wonders for my running. The weekly paper showed results from local clubs – NHRR seemed to be the best performers, and finishing the Buntingford 10 just behind one of their top guys (age group triathlon world champion, no less!) convinced me this was the right club. The first few club sessions were great – the atmosphere was so welcoming and inclusive, and a great bunch of people made fitting in very easy. A structured training programme set by the club coach meant things started to improve……. I asked one of the faster club runners at a midweek league race how many times a week he trained. “Two……”, he said hesitantly “……times a day” “Really!!”, I said, in awe. This was extreme! And I was hooked! Now - this really was the start! Now in my 6th year at NHRR, running for me today is as habitual as cleaning my teeth, a consistent, daily thread running through the sometimes ruffled, twisted fabric of life. It sets the agenda for my day, every day. In the background, NHRR, and the greater running community, provides the structure and network of like-minded individuals, who, just like me, wouldn’t want to be without it. Comments are closed.
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About My Running StoryMeet some of the club members and read their personal running story. Archives
October 2020
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