No pain, no gain

IF you happen to be in the Palma Nova area on either a Monday or a Thursday morning, around 9.30am then you may be treated to the sight of a group of women jogging.

Most of them will be wearing neon pink, yellow, or even orange running vests (surprisingly this does actually offset the ketchupy colour that spreads rapidly across your face as the heart rates goes up and the breathing quickens) or there is one larger lady wearing an ancient long sleeved baggy t-shirt which covers her bum.

Yes, you’ve guessed it, that’s me.

I have finally bitten the bullet and have started, gulp, running.

It’s actually more of a speed whinge as I flap along at the back of the group wishing it were all over.

But no pain, no gain as I have been told.

It began because I was joined to a group on Facebook called the Viva Roadrunners as they were running for Charley, and I needed information about them.

One thing led to another and I started to read their cheery exchanges and got quite jealous of the camaraderie and out and out fun they seemed to be having.

But they also seemed to be running quite a long way each time they went out, and there was just no chance that I would be able to keep up with them.

So I asked their trainer Dave Bladon if he would do a ‘Fat Girls’ Beginner Class’, got some chicas together (turns out I’m the only fat bird, the others were just beginner runners) and off we went.

Now I can’t honestly tell you that I look forward to either of my regular weekly running dates although the core of the group: V, me, Suzie, Holly, Sophie and Crookers and Caron(who are also in the big girls’ group) are fabulous and we have a lot of fun, it turns out that, guess what?

Running is just as hard as it looks.

I am by far the worst, dragging myself along the road complaining and swearing and tutting: I can’t quite get my head around the idea that people do this for fun.

However, I am now getting to enjoy the upside, as I am now fitting into my clothes again, and even garnered a few compliments last week from some people who hadn’t seen me in a couple of months.

That sounds so shallow, I know, but these things are important and mean the trainers will get fished out of the bin again.

Who knows where it all may end? I’ve also taken up Yoga, but you can hear about that another time. It takes quite a special bloke to take a bunch of women out training and get them to do it effectively.

We’re very lucky to have our own ‘semi personal trainer’.

So my virtual hat goes off to the very cheery and persistent Mr Dave Bladon from Viva Sports Gym in Palma Nova.

He has a very special type of deafness which means he cannot hear moaning, or swearing, and is consistently encouraging and pushy just to the point where you want to kill him.

He hasn’t once said ‘you aren’t trying hard enough’ which would have meant his instant death and he has endless patience and creativity with finding new exercises and routes to keep us all guessing.

It’s also been proved that working out in a group is easier than doing it on your own.

So if you want to join us then you are most welcome to: you can expect to lose weight, get fit and hear loads of new four letter words (like ‘road’, and ‘work’, and ‘thin’ ;-)).

Grab your plimsolls, we’ll see you at 9.30am.

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