Kings Cross to Brixton: 10.98k

FRIDAY 2nd MAY - 5.30pm

Distance: 10.98k.
Time: 1 hour, 12 minutes
Average pace: 6 min 35 secs per km
Route: Kings Cross, Farringdon, Blackfriars, Elephant & Castle, Kennington, Brixton
Music: Watch The Throne - Jay-Z & Kanye West; Magna Carta Holy Grail - Jay-Z

This is the run that inspired me to start this blog, among other things. As I said in previous posts, I do wish I had started blogging from that first awful running experience, but managing to do 10k is a good enough milestone to start keeping a log of my progress.

This evening's run was fairly straight forward - I wanted to complete a 10k before doing We Own The Night, just to make sure I wasn't going to die in the middle of Victoria Park or some such. I'd already managed 8.6k so in actuality there were probably no real concerns, but you never know. 

I started running from work in Kings Cross down to London Bridge not too long ago, which works out (according to MapMyRun) about 6k on average, and on a whim I decided it was probbaly the most sensible way to get close to 10k, by extending that run and try to get to around 9k or 9.5k. I figured out a fairly straighforward route (lots of boring straight lines, actually) and figured if I did it now then I could get it out of the way so I could enjoy the rest of the Bank Holiday. Excellent motivation as means I can do more sitting around in between birthday lunches, getting my haircut and whatnot. 

Anyhoo, it wasn't the easiest run, especially around the 2-3k mark. I drank one too many glasses of wine last night and still felt a bit stodgy from an ilicit trip to McDonalds, so was feeling a bit 'heavy'. I don't think I enjoyed much of it, honestly, but as ever told myself if I could get to Elephant and Castle I could always jump on my bus early (nooooo), and then applied the same mentality to Kennington, and halfway down Brixton and so on and so on. The last 2k, ish, was far and away the most enjoyable, and seeing my final destination from a distance meant I pretty much stuck it out to the end. PHEW. 

The only slightly confusing moment was at Elephant & Castle roundabout, also known as the seventh layer of hell. For those of you who haven't had the pleasure, it's just a big THING in the middle of South-ish London that you can't see beyond and all roads appear to lead to the same hideous place. I probably could have managed 10k running around in circles there, had I not checked my Google maps. Ugh.

Today's run was helped along by my inner gangster, and Jay Z. I always find hip hop/rap music quite relaxing when running - there's the exact right amount of low and high tempo, rarrr-ness (a technical term), and songs to make me smile a bit to keep me buzzing along. 

To conclude: 10k DONE. Woohooooo. I plan to do at least one more run over the long weekend, so watch this space.

An introduction: Starting from 10k

Full disclosure: I am not typically the girl who would take up any sport, let alone something as intensive as running.

I'm not really into - fitness. I like books, and nail varnish, and you know - FOOD. And wine. Exercise did not fit into my lifestyle.

So how did I come to be here, blogging about running? Well, I started running just over a year ago, in April 2013, when my then-housemate asked me if I wanted to go for a run with her in the park we lived nearby in London. I'd just been lamenting that I needed to do some form of exercise, and I couldn't think of a good enough on-the-spot reason not to go out with her, and so I found myself in a grey H&M hoodie, a David Bowie t-shirt, some leggings and my battered Converse (I know), 'running' around Brockwell Park.

After about a minute, I couldn't breathe. My lungs were useless. I was red in the face and probably everywhere else. I'd never sweated so much in my life. I told my housemate, about a third of the way round the circuit, that I hated her, in that particular moment, and just to make sure she knew it, I MEANT IT. Why was she subjecting me to such TORTURE?? Why did people do this for fun?!

After I'd survived that torturous 2.8k (if that), and recovered most of my sensibilities, I decided that, at 27 years old, I should be able to run the circumference of a park without feeling like I was going to die (I really felt like I might just die).

So I kept at it, slowly. I kept running. I stopped running, sometimes. I did a lot of walking, and a lot of huffing and puffing and sulking. I ignored advice from friends and family members who ran, and then I slowly started taking it on board. I experienced a lot of pleasure, happy surprise, determination that I could - and would -  manage another minute or two. I told myself if I could just get to the end of this song, the end of this street, to the next bench, I would let myself stop and walk for a bit. Or maybe I'd keep going. I did 1k, 2k, 3k. The first time I ran round Brockwell Park without stopping, with the same housemate a few weeks or months later, I've never felt so excited and ecstatic. It kept me going, and it felt good. I did 5k. I did 7k. And so on.

One year later, and thanks to some friends, I signed up for my first 10k - We Own The Night in Victoria Park, London. This evening as part of training for WOTN, for the first time I ever, I did a run that went into double digits - 10.98k from Kings Cross to Brixton.

I had considered, a year ago when I did that first hilariously bad run, starting a blog about my running journey from Day One, to see how I progressed and if I got better and if so, how. I never did and now I wish I had. And so this evening it occurred to me that maybe achieving 10k was as good a milestone as any to start documenting my running progress, to have something to look back on, and maybe talk to some other people who like running around. So, this is exactly what you'll find here. I'm going to blog every run I do, how far, how it felt, what I listened to, and everything in between.

Wish me luck!