Run

I was late to start with my running; I was always fairly successful at school but the main appeal for me there was getting out of lessons to enter multi school events. Running seemed like a lot of effort for little return to me when at school.
My Dad has been a great runner and still is today. Back in his youth he was one of Lincolnshire's and even the country's top distance runners and was regularly in local papers winning events up and down the country. I can remember as a really young child standing in crowds to see my dad run past for a few seconds and not remembering a lot more about it, only now looking back at his times do I truly appreciate how bloody quick he was. Running the 1984 London Marathon in 2hours28minutes and regularly running local 5 and 10 mile races at a 5 minute mile pace. I believe this is where my appeal for running has come from today. One story I recall him telling me was when he was down at the local canal with a few of his friends throwing stones in the water when a passer by said 'Aye up Chris its sports-mans week road race today and Lincolnshire's finest are here!' My dad went down to the start line, signed on, dropped his wax jacket off and won the race in his wellies; he then returned back to the start line put on his wax jacket and headed back to the canal to see his friends!

I initially started running to try to lose a bit of weight, I used to take the dog out on a 5 kilometer loop, as I was running more regularly my Dad told me about a local race series, the wolds dash. I took part in these regularly and became increasingly competitive with the other runners who would regularly finish close to me. My running became less about my fitness and more about my race results. After a year of running on my own I decided that, to help keep myself motivated throughout winter I would join Louth Athletics Club. I still regularly run with Louth A/C once a week and it really helps vary my running and keeps things fresh.