In 2014, I was very overweight and seeing my doctor regularly for menopause symptoms. At one consultation, she casually mentioned that it wouldn't do me any harm to lose some weight.
That was the push I needed and I started to eat healthily, with lots of fruit and vegetables, lean meat and pulses. By the end of the year, I was close to my target weight, but I knew that if I didn't exercise as well then I was likely to put the weight back on.
On 28 December 2014, after the usual excesses of Christmas, I went for a walk... for over two hours. Two days later I walked for two and a half hours and on 2 January 2015, I walked for three hours.
Once I was back at work, I carried on doing a long walk every Sunday but after a while it started to get boring so thought I'd try mixing running and walking.
I really enjoyed the running but found I couldn't keep going for very long. It was then that I looked around for a group or teacher that could help and I found Run To Be at the beginning of May 2015.
With the guidance of Lindsey and our coach, Simon, within a few weeks everything came together and I truly experienced the joy of running, the great sense of freedom and feeling all my stresses and cares just fading into the distance.
Since joining Run To Be I have progressed quickly and I now run several times a week. I regularly run 10k distances and further and continue to enjoy both running as part of a group and also on my own.