Week 11 Guest Blog

 Happy Feet Blog – It’s All in the Mind! By Pippa
It’s no secret that I have struggled with running over the years. Well, when I say struggled with running, it’s really my mind that I have struggled with. You see, it keeps putting barriers in my way, which I have previously struggled to get over. But things are beginning to change….! and mostly thanks to my Happy Feet family!

I first joined Happy Feet in April 2016 when I did my first Couch to 5k course. After graduating from C25K in June 2016, I thought it would be a great idea to challenge myself with a distance – so I stupidly signed up for the Worcester City 10K! Well, I now know it was a stupid thing to do, but I get these wild ideas!

So, increasing the training, I began to feel it a little in my right knee, but just put it down to running further and aching! I need to listen to my body! I did run the 10k, in a respectable time of 1hr13 mins (what I wouldn’t give to be able to run it in that time now!), but sadly, I had hurt my knee and didn’t run again until January 2017. In truth, I have struggled to get back to running properly since then!

Happy Feet have always been there when I have struggled and as always, I have never been left behind! No one ever is! And that is what I love about the group! Everyone is included – even if I do run the speed of a tortoise!

As a lot of you know, in January 2018, my youngest, William (then 3) was diagnosed with Acute Disseminated Encephalomyelitis (ADEM)
(https://www.encephalitis.info/acute-disseminated-encephalomyelitis-adem). It was a day I will never forget! When you are told that your normally vibrant and bonkers child could end up in a wheelchair for the rest of his life! It floored me and I spent 9 long days on Riverbank Ward with him! However, he has amazed us all and made a full recovery – well as normal as a 5-year-old can be! But this time led me to find the Encephalitis Society as a source of information and support. I wanted to give
something back! So, one of those lonely nights in hospital, I signed up for the Great Birmingham 10K that May! Yeah, great idea at the time!!

​​So back into training I went! And I did do the 10K! It was very warm – about 26 degrees! No chance of beating any times! Just glad to have got to the end! And I raised over £200 for the charity!

In January 2019, I started my second C25K course! I realised I needed to get back to basics and start again. I graduated in March 2019 and then ran Blenheim 7k at the end of April. Again, raising money for The Encephalitis Society!
And things seemed to be going well – back to the beyond groups and even starting 5-10k training in July with a view to running the Worcester City 10k again! And then it all went wrong. Partly because of a foot injury, but I think mainly it was that mindset again! I just couldn’t believe in myself! I had to give up the running and focus on the physio exercises and get back to the point of being able to run again! This time, I actually did my physio exercises!! I was determined to run again!

And finally, the physio gave me the go ahead to start slowly! So I signed up for my THIRD C25k course! And I seemed to struggle with it again! Thanks to Sharon encouraging me, I managed to run for 35 minutes and started to believe that I could do it after all!

And then, just as we were due to graduate, Coronavirus hit and lockdown happened! No graduation for me. No running with the group…by my usual efforts, I should have given up…but I didn’t!
Something had changed! I actually believed in myself! And on graduation day, I went and ran 5k on my own…! And now I can actually call myself a runner!

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