A chilly and illness-peppered winter was not the ideal lead-up to what was supposed to my first crack at a Marathon (in Paris).
I’m a relative latecomer to running - it was not my tastes as a youngster (I’m pretty sure I walked all our cross-country runs at school!) and a few short streaks in my 20s never really stuck. That was until we found Parkrun in 2022.
Parkrun is a free-to-enter, volunteer organised timed run that happens every Saturday all across the UK (and beyond). Having an event to turn up for each week helped keep me consistent and having a time helped me benchmark my improvement week on week and left me eager to come back and beat the score each week.
This snowballed and helped me go from couch potato to running competent Half Marathons regularly.
Luckily for me the habit seems to have stuck deep enough to weather a few dodgy months but they did help me refocus. I’m not doing the Paris Marathon - right now I don’t want to be tied up on very long runs at the weekend and give up playing regular games of football to avoid potential injury.
Our local Parkrun course has dried out after a soggy spell and I’ve restarted my parkrun habit for a Saturday Morning pick-me-up and the magnificent weather has certainly helped.
On to the Hackney Half in May!