4 miles in the rain

Did 4 laps (= 4miles) at Dulwich at lunchtime. Cool, breezy and wet, but I quite like running in the rain for some reason. I think having the weather to fight against occupies your mind when it might otherwise be busy telling you to "stop", "it hurts", "you've done enough" etc.

I bought my first pair of Reeboks online in 2005 and they sat in the cupboard unused for many months. I wanted to run but I didn't think I could. From the age of 6 months I had asthma, and in those days the thinking was that since asthma attacks often seemed to be brought on by exercise, asthmatics should avoid exercise. Thankfully I grew out of asthma in my teens, but the nagging feeling remained that if I ran for too long the wheezing might come back. And also, I suppose running just seemed a bit, well, boring, compared to the other activities I enjoyed like cycling, hillwalking and ski-ing.

However in 2003 I started playing cricket, a sport I loved when I was a kid, and surprisingly, besides the batting and bowling, I really enjoyed the running around in the field, and I guess that's when I started thinking seriously about taking up running.

Early in 2007 I went out for a couple of short runs in the park opposite my flat in Edinburgh. They were torture, and I didn't run very far, but the important things were that
1. I had convinced myself I could run,
2. I realised I wasn't going to have an asthma attack, and
3. I looked just like another runner - no-one was going to point at me and laugh. Well, no more than normal...

During 2007 I kept thinking in the background about running and then in the autumn several things came together at once - I set myself a goal to run a 10k for charity in 2008, my girlfriend started running, and her sister and brother-in-law who live nearby in London also took it up very enthusiastically. So suddenly I had a goal to achieve, as well as the support network to keep me motivated and get me out running on days when I might have been tempted not to.