A few months ago I posted about the numbers as I was beginning to prise their grip from my brain. These days, those bad boys are just part of the story – they are information, data, tools; used to measure and track and predict. Calories, kilos, centimetres, miles, times: all helpful to me in understanding my body. Because all of this is a head-game and I need the concreteness of the data to balance out my Occasional Crazy.

For the last month I have been getting up at 6am at least three times a week to complete the  Up & Running course – eight weeks of online coaching to help you run your first 5km (when I saw the Zombie t-shirt I knew I had found my people). Some runs have been better than others but last Thursday everything felt achy and slow and just blergh. It was my final training run before the 5km Race for Life on Saturday. Friday I felt a bit ‘off’ and yesterday was awful. I found it really hard to wake up and had very little energy all day. So I decided that me being well was more important than any run, and just took care of myself, ate healthy light food and loads of water and watched a couple of movies before an early night.

I’m so pleased I did. This morning I feel better, not 100% but enough to get my ass out of bed and lace up my running shoes. I was prepared to walk it if I had to but once I got going I was ok. I felt a bit stiff and I had to stop halfway for a little semi-spew but mostly it was fine. And I finished the 5km in 38:54. Not my best time or performance, but I finished and that matters so much.

Sitting here now I have that post-exercise rush that is totally addictive – it makes me feel a little bit bulletproof. I have learnt so much since that first post, since those first 2 kilos. Now I have lost 20 and I am so much closer to my fighting weight. But more importantly, I have learnt how to finish things, and that I can do hard things.

And I know that in the event of a zombie apocalypse, I would have a better than even chance of outrunning the gruesome buggers.

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