I know running right?? Its horrible. All of my life I have hated running and couldn’t think of a worse form of torture to inflict upon myself. I often watched people from my car as they ran along the pavement with their phone strapped to their arm and often found myself wishing I could join them. Until I gave it another go and sharp changed my mind. I just wasn’t a runner.

When I first took the step and joined the bootcamp in 2016 at East Coast Fitness in Seaham. I couldn’t run for toffee. The fitness studio is down in the marina which has quite a steep bank down to sea level. To everyone who goes to bootcamp its known as “The Hill” and Graham who runs the bootcamps usually makes the class run up it at least once per session. So when I first started I was terrible at running it, I was slow and struggled to get to the top without stopping. Other boot campers cruised past me as if I was standing still. I was determined to get better. I found a Couch to 5k club so I joined up and found myself running with the group once a week. Its a great way to get into running, they start you off slow, running for a couple of minutes and then walking, then running again and walking again. They gradually build up the length of time your running until you run the full 5km without stopping over a 10 week period. A few of us in the group even met up on a different night to get some practice in, now thats commitment for you.

After the 10 weeks were up I kept on running and started to actually enjoy it. I found that every time I started a run the 1st mile or so was always difficult but if I persevered my breathing worked itself out and it stopped hurting and I go into it. Back at bootcamp and the dreaded “Hill”, well I was flying up and sometimes I was even up first.

I now go running once or twice a week with friends but we prefer trail running over pounding pavements. I also recently took part in a 10k race and completed it in 47 minutes

Diabetes and Running

Running can be an ideal form of exercise for people with diabetes as it helps improve the body’s sensitivity to insulin. This is particularly helpful for type 2 sufferers. If your going on short runs you should be fine but its still advisable to take some glucose tablets with you just incase you go low, especially if you are going on a longer run. Also drink plenty of water and stick with it, don’t give up, eventually you might even get into it just like I did.

Run for Your Life