How to Become a Runner

Running is an amazing sport! It can be taken up at any stage in your life, you can take it as serious as you want, train as little or often as you like and diversify into whatever discipline takes your fancy. You can join a club or run solo. This truly is a sport that can be all things to all people.

Making the transformation from ‘normal’ to runner is not hard at all. The biggest challenge would be the change in mindset. To become a runner means to voluntarily become odd. To voluntarily wear strange sports kit in public, run past people you may know, exhausted and leaking sweat all over the pavement. To get up at the crack of dawn to train. These are not the actions of so-called normal people. To take running seriously borders on lunacy, and that’s what makes it great!

Critics point out that runners get bad knees, are always exhausted and look like freaks. And for what reason? What they conveniently leave out of their argument is that running injuries are mostly preventable with a bit of learning and proper equipment. They forget about the strong heart and lungs that gets developed, the weight-loss, the powerful legs, decreased risk of nasty diseases…the list of benefits is a long one.

So you want to join the club? Excellent! And it is so easy. If you are a complete novice, simply start to get in the know by reading a few specialist running magazines. They generally recycle the same theories and articles, and in this way you can learn the lingo and pick up some useful viewpoints on training methods and kit available. In no time at all you will be wondering if you pronate or supinate, and what PB you can achieve for a 5km.

The next bit is the hardest. It is the shift in attitude you need to make mentally. People that don’t understand the sport, or who are simply jealous of your effort to achieve personal goals will poke fun at you and mock your endeavours. Laugh off their ignorance, you are stronger than that. Congratulations – you have just completed your application form to the nutty world of running!

 Now you are ready to advance. A medical examination would be wise if you are in any doubt as to your medical condition. Then the most important item of equipment you need is a decent pair of running shoes based on the type of foot you have. There are essentially three different types of shoe that are available for runners. Please don’t just buy a popular brand in your local sports shop because you feel under qualified to pester a proper running store specialist. Trust me, you shins, knees and other body parts will thank you for proper preparation a few months down the line. Then you should really have a stop watch of some kind. You could go the whole way and buy a GPS/Heart Rate Monitor, but at the moment it really isn’t necessary.

At this stage you have read what you can on the sport, you know some terminology, theories and items of kit. Importantly, you have gone through the whole rigmarole of identifying what type of foot you have and which type of shoe would suit you the best. Out of a handful of models you have chosen the best fitting, most comfortable pair of running shoes with the help of an experienced expert. You even have a stopwatch. You are now ready to run.

The hardest part of running is often to step outside your front door. You may have all sorts of doubts about whether this silly pursuit is worth all the effort. Trust me, it is. Prior to starting out simply get a notebook, write down your goals and what you want to achieve from running. Make it specific, and then program your mind into achieving your set aims. Break it down into a training program spanning a few months, and record your training in your notebook. Then plan a simple route that you will be comfortable with. Track the distance beforehand in your car or on a mapping program. And then get out that front door and run that route! 

 If this is the first time you have ever run a training route on your own just mentally go through all the magazines you have read and put the tips into practice. Don’t go too fast. Walk as often as you need to, drink along the route if you want, try to keep upright and focused on what is happening around you for safety’s sake. Ignore the clever quips from the local idiots. Greet any fellow runners who may fly past you at this stage, but as they disappear like the Flash try and identify what it is that allows them to run well. Admire and remember them, they should be your role models. Learn as you go along. When it starts to hurt just ease back a bit, but fight off the desire to quit. Just think of how you proud you will feel when you have finished, knowing that the more sensible training you do the better you will feel and look. You are becoming a boa fide runner.