More Than Just A Run

FEATURES MORE THAN JUST A RUN

JUST A RUN

During a sociable 10k run over the summer, with an impressive gentleman who has high mileage and several ultraevents under his belt he described his jealousy that within a few months I would be experiencing the indescribable feeling of completing my first marathon.

He explained there is nothing quite like it and he has been chasing recapturing the high ever since. Fast forward five months and I am now an official marathon “finisher” having followed my training plan and completed Beachy Head Marathon on Saturday October 23rd. I have a definite sense of achievement, it is after all 26.2 miles along one of the widely recognised most gruelling marathon routes in the UK. However I am yet to feel the buzz.

My personal running journey started eight years ago when I was cajoled by friends into entering the Bookham 10k, an event that starts by singing the National Anthem and encourages hundreds of locals to scamper, slip and splash along the wintery muddy puddles of the February trails around Norbury and Ranmore.

When I saw a post on social media approximately one year later from a mum at school looking for a running buddy I responded with interest. I had enjoyed the scramble in the hills and was now looking for a way to build my fitness back up from my third pregnancy and to return to playing netball, without paying for gym membership or fitness classes that I could not attend with my two other kids in tow. Several other local ladies had similar ideas and an early version of Bookham Running Group was established. Through this informal and friendly Facebook group we arranged to meet for our runs. For anyone struggling with apprehension or motivation to get out the door for those first attempts joining a running group or arranging to meet a friend to do it with is a useful way to avoid putting it off. There are always several excuses why not to run at that moment, but there are always hundreds of reasons why you will be so glad that you did.

My growing appreciation for the power of running coincided with an increase in runners coming into the multi-healthcare clinic that I worked at on Bookham High Street.

I am a physiotherapist. I am in the minority of people who knew at a young age what I wanted to be and have never looked back. It is a great career, and I am hugely thankful for the opportunities I have had during my 20 years’ experience. I worked for five years across different disciplines in the NHS and have never known a more cohesive team spirit and camaraderie than those formative years in my training. I then worked in New Zealand and still miss it 12 years on! I have been able to balance being a musculoskeletal physiotherapist working in private practice with motherhood, which has its juggles but the benefits generally outweigh the chaos! Two years ago, I set up my own clinic specialising in runners, Keep On Running Surrey. It is an amalgamation of my own running journey and my clinical interest in running related injuries. I wanted to offer more, and I now have a clinic space where I can help clients overcome injury and achieve their running goals pain free without having to stop running.

I achieve this through creating a personalised action plan including advice, strategies and targeted rehab based on my comprehensive physiotherapy assessment, running gait analysis using video footage on the treadmill and, where