In April 2017 I wrote about my new found love of running after starting in January 2017 with a 5k App. Well, I am pleased to say that I am still running! As a serial quitter this is an achievement alone and I genuinely don’t envisage a time, injury aside, in my future that I won’t run.

This year my running buddy Sarah and I followed a training plan to run 10km, which we smashed and our furthest run to date is 11k. 11k! Just saying it makes me smile. I know this sounds smug but I am kind of ok with that. I think running just makes me proud, getting out and doing it gives me an enormous sense of accomplishment. Especially because I am not of athletic frame, I am a short, curvy woman with a body that reflects my age and the three children I have carried.

The 10km training plan was very different that the couch to 5k. We ran benchmark runs, splits, speed run, varying distances, all apparently to turn us into much better and powerful runners which, I would say it has totally done. Our form has developed and we are definitely stronger.

With this further boost in confidence and eagerness for a new challenge we decided to participate in 5k a day in May. We took it on as a personal challenge and laid out some rules. We would need to cover a minimum of 5k a day, mostly running but if a rest day was needed we could power walk it or run 4k, walk 1k, you get the gist. As long as the distance was covered and logged on our trusty Nike Apps.

Rounding up, of course this would mean setting aside 1 hour a day to ourselves. That’s a challenge in itself right?

So, with two days left, how has it been? Right, this month has been beyond busy and disruptive for our family. We have been living with my parents as we finish our house extension, had hospital appointments for our youngest who is prone to passing out, hospital appointments and an operation for the middle one who had a nasty finger break and two stay away trips for the eldest but do you know what, I haven’t missed a bloody day.

The natural born quitter in me struggles to run alone but being in a different town I have had to, it has forced me to, no excuses. As personal hurdles go, for me not to have someone else kicking me up the arse and to find internal motivation has been huge, SJP closet huge!

Finding the time has been a little tricky but I have just made my runs late in the evening and hello, perk of being at my parents is that my husband, Andy has been able to come with me a few times, which has been really lovely. Getting lost in fields, running along the canal on these warm May evenings has been a joy. One evening my eldest reluctantly came with me, he is 9. I forced him to come and he was very grumpy for about 5 minutes and then loved it. We ran the 5k looking at baby ducks on the way and cashed in on some lovely one on one time that probably we don’t do enough.

There was one night though, the night of The Royal Wedding where I climbed into bed started to drift off about 10pm only to jolt upright and gasp “F*&^ my run!” I had completely forgotten about it. Andy told me to just leave it, of course I couldn’t, I couldn’t fail just because I had forgotten. I also couldn’t let Sarah down. Thankfully we were at my Mum’s don’t forget so I woke her up and said I was going off on my run with Andy. She thought we were mad. We went from PJ’s to Trainers in less than 2 minutes and went off down the road. I am sooooooo glad we did it, I would have cried I think at the failure. I feel like there was a bit of fate on my side that night 1. We had childcare 2. I didn’t actually fall asleep and 3. I wasn’t drunk which let’s face it, Royal Wedding day I could have easily been.

Running everyday has become part of my daily routine, at this point I would gladly carry on with a daily run but maybe reduce it to a 3.5 minimum a day. I am not sure. Ask me on June 1st.

Does setting yourself a challenge help motivate you? Do you have a fitness buddy and what challenges can you recommend for me to do next?