This month Poppy and I started our Parkrun journey. In some ways it seems like we are a little late to the party but we are just glad we’ve begun.
Our Goals:
Me – This year I really want to get fit, loose weight and tone up again. I used to run at school, then on and off until I had children. Once I had my third daughter I started running with a running buggy and loved it. Then I moved and it took me a while to get back into it again but I did. I did the couch to 10k and ran a race in 1.04. I was very impressed with myself but then stupidly stopped. That was three years ago. This year I am going to get back into it again and stick to it.
Poppy – has very different goals. She is 11, already pretty fit and active. She is also passionate about gymnastics and trains for two hours 15 minutes a week. She wants to be as fit, strong and flexible as she can be in order to improve her gymnastics and tumbling. She is hoping that introducing gentle yoga plus running Parkrun weekly will help her become the best she can be. Fingers crossed for us both.
Our Experience
Our first run was that first Saturday in January. It was hard, especially as we were a few minutes late and had to run across the field to the starting point. I thought I was going to die by the time I got to the start line but Poppy whizzed off to catch up with the others. I knew then she was going to be good. However, the support and encouragement that everyone gave us made us want to go back the following week. They were so lovely!
During January we ran three out of four weeks together before we were struck down with a flu type virus. That’s a total of 15ks we wouldn’t have usually ran. Once we are back to feeling healthy we are going to try and get out a few nights after school too but for now this is us.
I will keep you up to date with how it’s going but for now I run/ walk it in 42 minutes and Poppy in 37. Watch this space as we get better.
Karen x