Runner Profile: Stephen

Why do I Run?  

Running for me started out with one person pestering me to get out on a Saturday morning and do a Parkrun.  The offer to walk, jog or run along with me at the same time left me with no other option than to reluctantly say yes, ok!  

I’d like to say it all started there that Saturday morning but no, I didn’t go back for quite some time.  

Fast forward 3 months to January 2018 and I was ready to begin a new year in a new way and of course Parkrun seemed a good option. They’re a nice bunch of people I thought and over the course of a few months I was becoming a semi-regular and enjoying the social side of meeting up with my new found friendly faces. It all started for me at Colin Glen Parkrun and every week we could smile as someone new would arrive and get tips on how to handle that daunting first hill. Again though, I give up after a few months.  

It would be 2019 that I really caught the bug though. I was doing regular Parkruns, a few 10k events and was starting to add in a mid-week run. I had a friend (Sam) who told me about his running group on a Wednesday night so I asked to tag along. This group, filled with people of all abilities, really made me feel welcome and the training has helped me develop on many levels.  

In 2020, with all the problems we faced in lockdown, being able to pull on your trainers and head out for a run was a great alternative to sitting in the house and wondering what to paint, clean or mend next!  

And now we are back. I am still enjoying my running and looking for events to enter. The events are more of a social experience than anything else, somewhere we can meet, run as a group and feel a sense of achievement in all the work we put into getting to the finish line.  

Walk, run or jog, getting started is always the hardest bit. I’m glad I kept starting again and happier to have found a group to share it with.