Well, I’m thrilled to say that I’m going to be a Brooks Inspire Daily running coach for the second year.
I currently run the Steyning Joggers running group. We are a community running group that meets in the car park of the Star Inn in Steyning on Tuesday nights at 7pm. The aim of the group is to encourage everyone to get out running and enjoy ourselves at the same time and it is great to have the support from Brooks to do this.
When I started running I didn’t set out to become a coach. It is something that happened more by accident; I saw lots of people come along to the Athletics Club I was a member of and then not come back because they thought that running wasn’t for people like them. It just struck me that with the right sort of support I thought they would stick at it and enjoy it. I still remember very clearly when I started to run, getting up at 6am so I could run outside where no-one could see me because I was so embarrassed about how badly I was running. That is nearly 7 years (and a few thousand miles !) ago. I love coaching people to run. There is no greater sense of satisfaction than helping someone to achieve their goals. It doesn’t matter if it is their first 5k or their first marathon, and seeing people start to fall in love with running is brilliant.
Running changes you. You get fitter, and then you start to look at other aspects of your life. You may give up smoking, drinking (or drink a bit less !) and start eating that bit more healthily. Then the people round you see what you are doing and then, before you know it, they have also started to change the way they live. Because you are eating more healthily you feed your children more healthily… and before you know it their lives have also been changed and they too become more active.
All of this happens because one day you decided to put on some trainers and go for a run.