A Story of Running Happy

If you are a runner, you may be aware of the Brooks Run Happy campaign. I was recently inspired to write this little story up as an entry to their competition in conjunction with Athletics Weekly, in which they asked people what makes them ‘Run Happy’. I thought it worth sharing a bit more widely anyway, so it gets a bit of air beyond the bottom of the Athletics Weekly inbox! I’m not normally much of a brand groupie but I genuinely do like Brooks’ products so I don’t mind leaving in the mildly sycophantic references to my use of their shoes…

What makes me Run Happy? Apart from slipping on my Brooks Glycerin you mean? Well, a Personal Best race time is fab eh? You set yourself a goal, you train for it and you achieve it. That’s a great feeling. Let me tell you though, that ain’t got nothing on the warm fuzzy glow I get from the exchange of mutually supportive advice and encouragement that you find in the running community, be that face to face at events like Park Run or online through forums and chat groups such as UK Run Chat. And do you know what’s even better than that? When you combine the two of course!

Last year, during a long overdue catch-up, a friend tentatively mentioned that he’d started up a bit of running. ‘Hooray!’ I thought; someone else to run-geek with! What with one thing and another, (injury, work commitments, actually having a life, etc.) he didn’t get quite as obsessively into running as I am (to be fair, that’d be a challenge in itself) but earlier in the year, after spending a lot of time looking after his girlfriend who had been working through some significant medical problems, he got back into it and mentioned that she was a runner too. He mentioned that she’d gone for a run a bit sooner after getting out of hospital than perhaps she should have and once or twice, when I was feeling a little low energy, I remembered that tale of determination and it made me think how lucky I was that I could run, spurring myself out of the door on the residual perspicacity of someone I’d never even met. Fast forward to October 2014 and she and I had arranged to run the Lancaster half marathon together! Unfortunately, it turned out she couldn’t run after all, so I prepared to go it alone but (having now run his first 10k!) my friend, saying he knew how much it meant to have friends and family at a race in support, duly booked himself on the same silly-early coach as me, dragging himself from Manchester to Lancaster on a Sunday morning, just because he could. Having set myself a reasonably ambitious goal of shrinking my 13.1 mile PB from 1:37:11 to 1:35 or below, I was feeling OK-ish but also understandably nervous. Having him there genuinely helped me focus on what I knew I had to do though, and stopped me fretting or getting caught up in a bundle of nerves as tangled as the laces of a pair of discarded trainers! As we headed to the start line he passed on her texted message of support, saying “Smash it out of the Park!”

I’ll spare you all the ins and outs of the race; the guy I caught drafting me, the stone in the shoe, the lady who unintentionally paced me for a mile! Generally the race went well but there were one or two of those inevitable darker moments when your tummy goes or your brain rebels or your feet ask ‘WHY!?’ when I remembered that phrase. ‘Smash it out the park!’ I told myself. ‘SMASH it OUT the PARK!’ a little mantra that I timed with my footfall. I ended up bringing those miles in at 1:32:16. Definitely sub 1:35 and a time that hacked 4 whole minutes and 55 seconds of my Pea Bee! I might have achieved a personal best if I’d attended that race alone but I don’t believe for a minute I’d have done it by such a margin if I’d not had that support there on the day.

A couple of weeks later and the Run in the Dark series had swung round; a 5 or 10k run round Salford Quays (simultaneously with other locations in the UK) and the same friends had invited me to run with them. I had been pretty non-committal. An 8pm race on a school night? In the dark? Hmmmm. Not sure. Shortly before cycling nearly 8 miles home from work after a long hard day, already hungry, knowing that I’d have to get home, change, cycle over to the race, not then getting home (again) until nearly 10pm before I could even think of getting some supper… I was beginning to compose the ‘I’m sorry but…’ text in my head. Then, I remembered the story of determination that had got me out of the door before. I remembered not having to sit alone on the early coach to Lancaster. I remembered the ‘Smash it Out of the Park’ text and I thought about how nervous I knew they’d be feeling with the challenge of 10k after respective illness and injuries, this being only his second race! I remembered that, after all, I wasn’t the only one who had to get up in the morning and go to work so I mentally deleted the excuses and cop outs, changed into my trusty Brooks Glycerin, necked an out of date gel I had left over from my marathon training and hauled my lazy bum back out into the night. I found them on the start line; ‘what pace are we doing!?’ I asked, groaning slightly when told the aim was 60 minutes or below. ‘That long!? I want to go home for my dinner!’

If I’m totally honest, I did find it challenging to run a slower pace than I was used to and I found myself having to slow down a couple of times when I realised I’d gone off ahead. Still, seeing their grit and focus, as well as the support they gave each other, was well worth a slight delay in filling my tummy and of course I enjoyed the atmosphere, catching glimpses of a hundred other, similar stories of supportive runners barrelling through the night in their flashing armbands! By the time I shared in crossing the finish line on an impressive last minute sprint, I’d completely forgotten about my grumbly tummy and turned round to deliver a double high 5 as he came in just behind us (ever the gent, it was ladies first!). We hammered that 10k in 58:23 and his time was 58:46. I hadn’t really felt like I’d been very supportive, having grumbled at the start and finding it hard to stick to pace, so I was genuinely touched when they told me they thought they’d brought it in sub 60 because I had been there and helped to push them. The glow was palpable and I immensely enjoyed watching the realisation of a tough goal emerge through such genuinely insuppressible (if slightly sweaty) ear-to-ear grins! Needless to say I shall remember that finish line moment for years to come but funnily enough I’ve already forgotten what I ended up having for dinner.

My after-PB-glow at the Lancaster Half Marathon!

Meg and Guy looking equally radiant at Run in the Dark!

Running Happy, for me is the sheer elation that comes not just from finishing a hard run or achieving a goal but in helping others do the same. I have recently been inspired to complete a Leadership in Running Fitness course and am looking forward to helping even more people discover this joy by achieving goals they never thought possible. I hope to get involved in setting up local running groups for beginners and improvers as well as for a local charity that works with people at risk of or experiencing homelessness. I can’t wait to share how good running can make you feel.

So there you go. That’s what makes me run happy. Other runners. Other runners and the sheer joy they find in not just running but in sharing that run, be that the triumphs, the tribulations or the lack of toenails. That’s what makes me run happy. Well, that and slipping on my Brooks Glycerin of course!

Many thanks to Guy and Meg for letting me use this story.
You can also read a more in depth account of the Lancaster Half Marathon