RUNNING IN HARMONY
Christine Fieldhouse talks to six runners who admit that running has helped their relationships
“Running was amazing for sorting my head out. It helped me see sense.”
Sarah Gracia, 37, is a beautician, from Wimborne, Dorset.
“Running has played a major part in getting me through my marriage break-up.
I decided to leave my husband in December 2009 after 11
years together. We were living abroad at the time with our two children, now ten and six, so breaking up our seven-year marriage and moving the children back to the UK left me with a lot of guilt and worry. I’d done some running abroad so I jumped at the chance of a place in the London Marathon 2010 and I started training in earnest. Running was amazing for sorting my head out. It helped me see sense and I went from feeling bad that I had broken up a family unit to seeing that what I’d done was for the best for all of us. As my training went on, I grew in confidence and I realised that I could do things for myself and I was a very capable lady indeed. I finished the London Marathon in 2010 in 4:04 and then last
year I did the Rome Marathon. We’d had our honeymoon in Rome so it was an emotional route and I cried a lot of the way round, but for me it was like closing a book.”
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“We do a long run on Sundays and we run a few times together in
the week after work.” Jane Wilkes, 50, is a receptionist, from Hove, East Sussex.
“My husband Jonathan and I have been married for 14 years and when he started training in 2010, I never
thought I would join him. I’d never run before, I had asthma and I was terribly unfit. But he was always out training and he’d met some really nice people so he persuaded me to take up running. I wasn’t confident but I decided to give it my best shot….with surprising results! It was brilliant finding something that we can both enjoy together and that’s also doing us both a lot of good! We do a long run on Sundays and we run a few times
together in the week after work. When we’re running, we chat more, about everything from vegan recipes to running schedules and shoes! We sometimes go running with other people so we both
have a whole new set of friends too. Now we’re training for separate goals – Jonathan is doing the Brighton Marathon and an ultra 100K marathon this year while I’m training for the Brighton half marathon. Our marriage was good before I began running, but running with Jonathan has taken us to a whole new level.”
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