My Race, My Pace

My Race, My Pace

4 September 2018

Another weekend gone, another Park Run survived! I’m almost at my year anniversary with Park Run, with 155km worth of ‘runs’ on Greenham Common completed. I can’t lie – I’m still not a fan. I’m 31 runs in, and I still get this feeling of dread as we drive parallel to the running route – I can see the parts of the course where I usually feel like the world is about to end, and it just ties my tummy in knots. It’s all a massive overreaction, I know. I mean, it’s a 5km run for goodness sake, not the flipping marathon – but all the same, I find it a real challenge. I go to park run with my Husband, my Dad, and my Brother, and they all take it in turns to ‘run’ with me and keep me going – essentially, I get a different personal trainer every week! Even with my running buddies, my times are a bit of a disaster – they vary from the slowest, at 42:43, to the fastest, at 35:53 – at the moment, I’m sitting tight in the high 30s…something I blame on the weather.

I know what you’re thinking, if I dread it so much, why bother? 9am is a sacred time at the weekend, and should be utilised as precious sleeping, or full English breakfast time, right? I completely agree – I am not one to surrender sleep or food unless I really feel it’s for the greater good – and that’s why I get up and go. Because I know, deep down, that it’s good for me. No matter what time I end up with, no matter how many runners fly past me, no matter how slow my pace, I have improved my fitness, benefited my health – and I’ve probably burned off at least a KitKat chunky. I quite like the ‘runner’s high’ that comes with the release of endorphins post-run (something allegedly known as feeling ‘runderful’) – it’s not quite enough to have me sprinting back to the car, but it does give me a real sense of achievement! The people who organise our local park run are absolutely fantastic, they work extremely hard to make it the best experience they can, encouraging people to the bitter end – I’d probably be walking through the finish line if I didn’t have a dozen smiley faces cheering me on.

There aren’t many places that give me that feeling of dread, but I am very aware, as we all are in this profession, that there are many patients out there who feel that way about visiting their dentist. Our team at The Briars are the smiley faces at the finishing line – we may not be cheering and shouting at you to ‘keep going’ – but we are here to be the support you need when you’re at your weakest. If you need to test the water just by coming in for a wander round – it can be arranged, if you want to come in for a chat about treatment options – let us know. We’ve all got our fears, we’re all human – if we can help in anyway, all you have to do is ask.

I’m still waiting for my inner athlete to emerge and make me fall in love with running – for now I’ll remain optimistic, there’s plenty of kilometres left in these little legs! In spite of my rant about how much I dislike running, I am very much looking forward to hitting my 50th park run (which I’ve worked out will be sometime in January) – I may not be competitive with the other runners, but I am with myself – I want that red ‘50’ t-shirt!!

I hope you all had a lovely bank holiday weekend, enjoy the rest of your week! 😊

Amy x