Bugger

6.15am the alarm went and Em (I'll be ambitious at this point and hope the majority of people reading this don't know Emma is my wife) gets up ready for work, asking if I'm going to get up. "Why?" I ask, forgetting I'd set my alarm for a few minutes later. "To go for a run", she replies.

Short of brain activity at this point, all I can manage to express my dawning realisation that today is the day is, "Bugger."

Suffice to say I had absolutely no inclination at that point to do anything besides wait for Em to leave the house and go back to bed.

But after a routine coffee, orange juice and breakfast bar I'm a bit more with it and already in my running gear (gotta look like I'm keen, right?) so gradually come round to the idea of going out for a run.

Half an hour later, having done anything to avoid stepping out the door (are my shoelaces just as I want them?) I eventually make it and have an instant success. The miserable next door neighbour is saying bye to his wife at the front door as she leaves for work. They both notice me with an expression of surprise that suggests I don't give the appearance of someone who runs at this time, but as I'm playing with my iPhone that's strapped to my arm and have earphones in I manage to avoid the need for false pleasantries. "I would stop and say hello but as you can see I've got fitness levels to maintain."

I make it to the end of my street of suburban new-build houses, to the top of the hill (to my surprise) and back down the other side, carrying on down the main road for another couple of hundred yards. The pace had gradually slowed and my lungs screamed at me to stop, but at least I only did so after half a mile, twice as long as my last attempt. I walk most of the journey back and clock up 1.14miles in 18:07minutes. Hardly world-beating but a decent first effort.

http://soc.li/aDJIjfC

It's occurred to me since that the run (or walk, whichever half of it you want to emphasise) didn't last 18mins at all. Disregarding most of my lethargy in taking those first steps out the house, it must have taken me going on 10mins to get the iPhone in the rubber case, strap it on my arm in a comfortable position, decide which earphones I'd wear and how best to have them so they wouldn't interfere with my running.

Add onto that the amount of time it took to research which of the mind-boggling array of apps to choose to monitor myself (still not sure how my chosen mapmyrun differs from mapmyfitness, but downloaded them both just in case it does), get myself registered and up to speed on it.... and it's a much longer process.

I guess I'm similar to a lot of 21st century fitness wannabes. The technology available to see where you've been, how high you climbed and how fast you went is much more appealing than the effort involved in doing it. I hope, therefore, to be a bit of a guinea pig in test-proofing all the considerations you'll face if you ever decide that you too would like a perfectly good excuse to blank your neighbour.

MM

Introduction

Hello...

...and welcome to my blog, charting my efforts to transform from couch(sized) potato to half-marathon runner!

I've got a few ideas on what I'd like to blog about over the coming 12 months (including I hope how well it's going) but it all forms part of my efforts to ensure that the run translates into a decent amount raised for my chosen charity, the MS Society.

You might have to bear with me, as today not only marks Day 1 of my effort to become a long-distance runner but a blogger as well.

So, for now, and until I can think of a Cilla Black "ter-rah" style way to end these posts, thanks for looking.

Mark