Running

A redway

Running. Until this winter, I’d barely run since school and in recent years had dismissed running as the preserve of strange sinewy obsessives who wanted to collapse prematurely from a heart attack/have to have a hip replacement at 50. The fact that several keen runners I have known always seemed to be nursing injuries didn’t help. However, this January I threw previous reservations to the wind and joined a beginners' running course run by Milton Keynes-based club Redway Runners, an impressively well-organised outfit of over 2000 members. The name of the club refers to the mixed-use recreational dark red-tarmacked paths that criss-cross MK.

The motivation was a desire to improve my cardio fitness, prompted partly by the struggle I’d had getting up Snowdon last June. While I do walk regularly, and walking is great, there’s only so much I can do to stretch myself sufficiently several times a week as Milton Keynes is relatively flat. As I don’t like gyms and can never really seem to get going with cycling, and as a number of people at work had recommended the Redway Runners, I decided to give them a go, so signed up for the 6pm Tuesday course starting the second week in January.

Although I didn't manage to attend every session, I attended most of them and found the group leads very encouraging, particularly Lisa C who was often responsible for the 'tail' and assured me that the coolest place to be was at the back (just as well). The club operates a great system for beginners runs – as well as somebody leading, there’s always a tail runner to ensure no one is left behind, and faster runners have to ‘loop back’ if the group gets too spread out to allow the group to bunch back together.

Redway Runners January 2019 beginners 'graduation' - me circled

The 10-week ‘course’ ended with the group – as well as all the other beginners groups; there were 6 or 7 – doing the Milton Keynes 5K parkrun on Saturday 30th at Willen Lake. Hai had kindly offered a while back to run with me, which worked quite well though I suspect she might have liked to go faster at certain points. My priority, however, was maintaining a constant slow speed with the intention of avoiding having to walk – albeit that the group leaders had assured us beforehand that it didn’t matter if we did have to walk bits. In the event, I managed to get the whole way round without walking, which I was very pleased about.

My time – I’m not proud – was 45 minutes. Never come 840th in anything before. I was cheered to learn that there were evidently 63 people who came AFTER me, though realise some of them may have been walking the route.

A number of photos were taken, most of the ones I've located highly unflattering. Here's one such.

Very taken with the parkrun idea. The Milton Keynes parkrun is a pleasant single-lap route taking in the canal broadwalk, passing the Peace Pagoda and then doing a circuit of Willen Lake. Planning to have a go at the Reading parkrun this coming weekend.

Redway Runners have a whole load of group runs every week, aimed at runners of varying speeds. There are 'step up' runs several times a week for newly-graduated beginners, plus 'gentle step ups' for those of a particularly sedate speed (40+ minutes parkrun time). I've already been out on a couple of the latter and quite enjoyed them. The club seems to have runners of a whole range of ages, sizes and speeds, which is really encouraging. I had some reservations about taking up running at 50 but so far all seems good, and I am mindful of not rushing into it headlong and overdoing it (frankly that's not all that likely; I have no problem in adopting a 'moderation' approach to exercise, unlike to, say, chocolate biscuits). My boss Judith started running only around 10 years ago and is now a keen triathlete who has won her age category at the Ironman Wales for the past two years. I’ve no intention of doing triathlons, but it’s certainly encouraging to know that you can safely take up running at any age.