Halfway Point

By Kate Webb

3 October 

Strictly’s back and we’re getting to the business end of X-Factor, which can only mean one thing: it’s time for the ‘Get Started’ half term report. 

So where have we got to? Six Striders’ sessions completed and three pieces of weekend ‘homework‘ done. New bits of kit have been purchased, more miles have been covered, new routes found, and the pace is slowly but surely building up. 

Progress can be difficult to judge when you are starting from scratch, but the continuing encouragement from Becky, Helen and the other Striders suggests we are getting better at this, and I have noticed that the sessions are slowly but surely getting easier. 

It’s even enjoyable in places, running off the stresses of the day! Although I’ve lost two name badges to the streets of St Albans (and had my car broken into) I get to the end of a session wishing that there was time for another interval or two. 

We've got three weeks to go, and something that began – for me - as a bit of a personal gamble is now a more of a guilty pleasure (not unlike Strictly in our house). As this stage, it is tempting to start looking beyond the twelfth session. I’m trying to work out how I will keep this up, finding time to run at weekends, and looking out for route ideas on walkjogrun and such like. 

This isn’t what usually happens when I exercise, but then firing up the barbeque in balmy October while Brucie introduces another Waltzing celebrity isn’t usual either.