Running high – your new year’s resolution for 2017?

Louisa de Lange - 5 Jan 17

You have to be a tiny bit crazy to be a runner. Why else would someone get up at seven am, drive to a muddy field, sample the joys of a cold portaloo, stand around in sub-zero temperatures without a coat on, then run around for an hour? There’s nothing sane in that.

I reflected on this a few days ago. While you were hopefully still snuggled up in your duvet, or at least in front of the television with a cup of tea, a few hundred strangers and I were running our first 10k of the year. It was freezing cold, it was fairly muddy but it was a bloody brilliant start to 2017.

Why? You ask. Why bother? Well, just in case that final mince pie was one too many for the skinny jeans, let me tell you why you should take up running as your new year’s resolution for 2017…

Those lovely endorphins. I guarantee there will be times, many times, when you don’t feel like starting out on that run. And many more when halfway round, you are cursing ever starting this running malarkey. But I guarantee you’ll never regret having finished a run. Whether you’ve done two miles or twenty, there is nothing better than that smug self-satisfied feeling, setting foot back in your warm welcoming hallway. Hot, sweaty, knackered – but finished! The principle function of an endorphin is to inhibit the transmission of pain signals to the brain, but have a fab side effect of making you feel pretty darn wonderful. Addictive – yes, but so so good for you.

We’re friendly – and inclusive. One of my favourite bits about going for a run is a friendly ‘hello’ to my fellow runners. I even got a high-five this morning from a seriously cheery chap. I go the majority of races alone, and there’s always someone to talk to, whether in the queue for the portaloos, waiting for the start or halfway round. We don’t care whether you’re a six-foot beanpole who can run a forty-minute 10k, or whether you plod (walk) round the majority. Just show up, and you’re promised a warm welcome.

The medals! I didn’t win anything on sports day at school. There are no prizes for walking a cross-country route or coming last at triple jump. But finish one of these events and they give you a medal! Sometimes they even hang it round your neck for you! Most races, that’s all it takes for me to show up, but well worth it. Wear it with pride, you earned it.

It clears my head. If I’m ever stuck on a plot line, can’t figure out where to go next, or just feeling a bit bleugh, I go for a run. Something about getting the blood flowing and being able to break free from the desk means everything gets sorted. I honestly believe there’s not much that can’t be solved with a good run.

And you know what? It gets you fit! Running is one of the best ways to burn calories, tone up and get rid of that post-Christmas slog. Roughly speaking, for someone my size anyway, it’s about 100 calories per mile – that’s pretty good value for ten minutes work – and that’s not including the extra calories you burn afterwards, once you’re sat on the sofa. This article in the New York Times sums up better than I can about the wonders of exercise and here’s one from Runner’s World being appropriate biased.

So why not give it a go? Here are my tips for getting started, written a while back for Selfish Mother. Open that front door, and step into the new world of running! Let me know how you get on….

Louisa de Lange

Writer. Debut novel, The Dream Wife, published by Orion in Oct 18. I have too many bookcases, too many books I haven't read and an addiction to American TV. Find me on Twitter at @paperclipgirl and Facebook at @ldlwriter.

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