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Oct 2018
9:47am, 20 Oct 2018
102 posts
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JCB
[Thanks Rosehip!
I agree Fetch! Gives context and insight. Everyone has a story.]
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Oct 2018
10:39am, 20 Oct 2018
3,606 posts
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Cyclops
I started running so that I could cover more miles in the same time with our energetic young German Shepherd dog. I got fitter and enjoyed the feeling and also got faster going uphill when hillwalking so my sister started running too as she got cross at being left behind by me. The dog hated running so I ended up walking her and then going for a run by myself in the end. My sister ran a half-marathon which a friend entered her for so I had to do one. Then she ran a marathon so I had to do one of those too. These days I potter round about 3 - 6 miles quite slowly; work tires me out more these days.
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Nov 2018
7:49am, 17 Nov 2018
449 posts
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Steak-n-Cake
Changing from an active factory job & climbing about machines, to a sedentary sitting desk job made me reallly actually feel my arteries clogging! So I made myself a 3 mile route from home and started with jog a lamp post, run a lamp post... persevered until I could jog right round without stopping. Massive sense of acheivement at that - 10 years ago - done lots of races up to half marathon, although still not made the commitment and lifestyle change for a full marathon [that day will come!]
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Nov 2018
9:03am, 17 Nov 2018
9,470 posts
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Garfield
Signing up for the JP Morgan Chase corporate challenge in 1999 was what really started me running. My first run was memorable and hilarious...ran down the hill into Woking park, then around the corner then had to walk! Eventually, before the race, I ran around the park 10 times...just to make sure I could cover the 3.5 miles.  Two months later I ran a 5 mile race, then a couple months later a 10k race.
Before that, it was just running on a treadmill at the gym...boring as hell!
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Nov 2018
9:16am, 17 Nov 2018
9,471 posts
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Garfield
Before that, they made us run around the perimeter of our school in primary school from about the age of 8 (I hated it but could do it). Also we had these Canada fitness awards things that had a small running element of it...how fast can you run 150m in? I wasn't too bad at it, though can't remember what times I did it in. Those were done from about age 8 through 13 or so, then I stopped Phys Ed. I did start swimming a lot after that and was in swim club for a year but continued swimming 2.5k three times a week until I went to university. The pool there was lousy so I stopped swimming. More running started when I had insomnia in university, so would go jogging a small distance at midnight, after I'd finished practicing piano for hours!
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Sep 2019
1:06pm, 25 Sep 2019
32,466 posts
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HappyG(rrr)
[I'm bouncing this thread for any new Fetchies who want to tell us their tale. Also because my answer back on page 3 was this picture
+ "Cos I don't mountain bike no more" x about 20!]
I'd always enjoyed sports at school and uni, and continued to be pretty active with work and family: gym, squash, skiing and until 2007 mountain biking! My wife and I had actually moved to a wonderful countryside area because of my mountain biking (Scottish Borders, near Peebles). When I wasn't able or willing, to go mountain biking anymore, I took to just hiking up the nearby hills. And doing the "Wheeee" running down them in hiking boots, with coat tails flying. When we moved back to Edinburgh I wanted somewhere near Pentland hills to continue same. But it wasn't until I joined a local running club to run in the dark in winter that it really got "serious". A few wee runs a week turned into training for a marathon before age 40. And that was 11 years, 25 marathons and ultra marathons, and 20,000 running miles ago! G
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Sep 2019
1:21pm, 25 Sep 2019
4,801 posts
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Eynsham Red
That’s not healing up very well after all this time HappyG
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Sep 2019
4:09pm, 25 Sep 2019
3,333 posts
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Raemond
At school I was definitely not sporty. I got sick aged 9 and took a long time to fully recover resulting in a lack of both sportsing and socialising ability that made team sports my enemy. I fact I still can’t quite identify as a sportsy person because I associate sportsyness with the bitchy cool kids who made my school years miserable.
However, aged 28 and after moving to NL, being unemployed for a long time and becoming increasingly sedentary and depressed, I determined I was going to get fit before turning 30.
When I saw that running seemed to be really working for Sam (who had joined me on my quest) I threw aside my long held conviction that people who run voluntarily were awful and gave it a go. Then, having realised I could indeed run 5k without dying, I set my sights on triathlon.
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Sep 2019
4:33pm, 25 Sep 2019
525 posts
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Love Lettuce
Two things that happened at the same time caused me to start running. The first was that I escaped an abusive relationship - literally waited until the coast was clear then packed my stuff in the car and fled. The whole experience really knocked my confidence. I needed something to help build it back up and give me a sense of being in control of my own life again. The second was that my aunt and grandfather died within months of each other, and I wanted to raise money for the hospice that cared for them so I signed up for a 10k.
I had no idea what I was doing, I just started jogging in the park near my house. I didn't even know how far 10k was when I signed up for the race. I had in my mind that it was 4 miles and got a shock a few months into training when I realised it was half that again! But the process of training for the 10k was very therapeutic and I discovered I enjoyed running. Nothing beats the sense of freedom and being grounded in your body that I get from an off-road run.
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Sep 2019
4:39pm, 25 Sep 2019
34,446 posts
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Derby Tup
I got an invite in the autumn of 2004 to go for a social run out on a Wednesday evening with Keighley & Craven. I’d done some jogging previously but nothing serious. I enjoyed it and have been running ever since, including a couple of dozen or so ultras and maybe 150 fell races
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