PERFORMANCE
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“I knocked 10 minutes
off my time” Jo Waters, a very reluctant runner, has been training for a 5k Race for Life event in Battersea Park on May 8th. Here she shares the final installment of her diary…
Jo’s been following a 5k schedule set by RF’s Editor and Running Coach, Fiona Bugler. Find out more at The Running Inn blog pages
www.sheruns
shewrites.com, and for coaching advice visit
www.therunninginn.com
“
When the last Bank Holiday barbecued sausage had been eaten, my husband threw my running shoes at me and goaded me back onto the streets to start again. I struggled to start with, but after doing three sessions a week of treadmill training I began to see an improvement in my running. “The next challenge was to run 5k outdoors, which felt like a long way to start with. Determined to press on though, I took Fiona’s advice and followed a schedule of power walking and then re-starting running. “It was a strategy that paid off as I
gradually began to run for longer stints and took less time to recover to start running again. I tried to do one long run a week and two shorter ones and managed to fit them into my busy life. “The best time to run for me was early in the morning after a shot of caffeine and a black banana (all the tennis players at Wimbledon swear by them apparently). Using an iPod also made it more enjoyable.
Starting to see a difference “After a few weeks I was pleased to notice that my previously too-tight jeans were hanging loose around my waist – the scales revealed I’d lost a satisfying 5lb since Easter. “As the week of the race started I was
inundated with work and a bit stressed out about how to fit in training. Running Free editor Fiona Bugler told me to take it easy, so I did some short runs and lots of dog walking, but worried it wasn’t
24 ■ RUNNING FREE
enough and I’d be finishing red-faced and feeling just as unfit as last year.
Race night “As we drove across South London to Battersea Park on the evening of the race a soft summer rain descended and the sky turned dark grey. The kids asked hopefully if the race would be cancelled due to heavy rain – I had to explain that events involving thousands of runners did not get called due to a shower. Deep sighs came from the back seat. “The great thing about Race for Life is the incredible ‘can-do’ emotion of the whole event. A little girl stood in front of us and we read the notice pinned to the back of her T-shirt, ‘To Mummy and Daddy I Miss You.’ To me, desperately sad stories like that are the reason I get off my bottom and run – it makes all the pain worthwhile and you do feel you can make a difference.
Keep on going! “I’m not going to pretend we ran every step, but the majority of the time we ran or jogged with only the odd stint of walking. As we ran beside the Thames by the Peace Pagoda my 10 year-old daughter Phoebe started complaining of a pain in her leg. I offered to take her to First Aid but she was determined to press on and get her medal. “My elder daughter Holly, 14, and her
friend Arabella ran on ahead. At various points Phoebe and I struggled, but both willed each other to keep going – quite a bonding experience.
The final sprint to the finish “We put on a spurt in the final 500m and decided to try and beat the power walking pensioner and big group in pink cowboy hats. My time was just over 40 minutes, a whole 10 minutes faster than last year and my 14 year-old daughter was only two minutes in front of her 47 year-old mum! “I’m inspired to keep going now and am planning to enter for another event later this summer to try and get my time down. At the time of going to press we’ve raised over £150 towards our target of £200 for Cancer Research UK. Even the kids think that’s got to be worth it.
■ You can still sponsor Jo at
www.raceforlifesponsorme.org/ jobarden0412
t
Cool gear for summer
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