Fatness in perspective

I need to give some perspective to my fitness goal. I am a large girl. I don't like to admit these things but I tipped the scale at 100kgs. For my height of 172cm, that means I'm carrying about 40 extra kgs. Holy crap! I don't like to dwell on weight because I'm more about how you feel, or how you look. However the scales don't lie. So you can imagine what I look like in a pair of Skins.

When I started the C25K I struggled to run continuously for 1 minute. My fitness level was nonexistant. My speed has not improved, but my stamina has. I've made great improvements to be where I am now.

I have tried to run before. It's a bit like giving up an addiction. I was addicted to sitting on my butt!! I'd start a running programme but then something would happen and I'd stop for a week, then two weeks, then a month. Then I'd get sick, or something else would happen and soon there was no running programme.

I wanted to start running when I came to Karratha, about 12 months ago. But it was hot. Then there were cyclones. Excuses, excuses. I have to say, though, in January I hurt my ankle. I was packing up the pingpong table for a cyclone and I dropped it on my ankle. There was a lump the size of a cricket ball off the side of my ankle and we thought it was broken. Not much you can do in the face of a cyclone so it took 6 days to get to the doctor. By that time my whole foot was a yucky black/purple colour and I could not walk. The x-rays showed my ankle was not broken, thankfully, but bruised. I was on crutches for a fortnight and it was some months before I could walk without a limp and even now it is still tender - 10 months later!

So the weight piled on while I was doing zero exercise. I started the C25K programme cautiously but my ankle has been fine. I have full movement and it only hurts if I poke it! So I don't poke it!! The other day I remember having to think about which ankle it was - and I knew then it must be better! Still, there is weight on my ankles and knees so I need to be a little careful.

At the moment, I have no excuses. I have been exercising consistently since July. In fact I have not missed a session. I put this down to the support I received from the runners forum. Now I'm confident enough to start a blog! I have enough faith in myself that I will continue this running - even through the heat and cyclones!! (We dumped the pingpong table!)