Nicky Southam tells us about her Desk to 5 k experience!

Desk To 5k – 2017

‘I don’t do running’ has been a mantra I’ve lived my life by rather successfully for many years until 6 months ago, when I felt a very alien urge to go out running. Naturally I ignored it for a while, besides I didn’t own any trainers, yet the urge kept coming back. When the OS Runners club were on the balcony one lunchtime, the lovely smiling face of Egbe enticed me in and I signed up for the 11 week Desk To 5k challenge. I was keen, I bought some trainers, an OS Runners top and filled out the membership form. Goal set: to run 5km without stopping.

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Sports Day 2017

Sports Day – 2017

Being a new member of the OS Runners I wanted to show my support for the Sports Day event and I knew my daughter would love it too. I wasn’t brave enough to sign up for any serious races, just the fun ones like Egg & Spoon, 3 Legged and Kids relay. I was a bit apprehensive about wearing my OS Runners top as didn’t wish to look too keen so eventually decided against it, only to discover nearly everyone sporting their club top when we arrived! Still it was a fantastic event and could really feel the sense of community and friendship, everyone was welcome and included. The children had a wonderful time and entertained themselves in the sand pit and everyone gorged themselves in between races on the yummy strawberries brought by Julie.

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At The Finish Line With…Claire Savage

Tell us a bit about your running history

I was hopeless at running in school and dreaded every athletics season. The 1500m used to take me 15 minutes and that was with great effort.

After leaving school, I used to occasionally run on a treadmill and I certainly never dreamt I’d run outside or do any distance.

Then things changed. I have always played field hockey and after having my second child, I realised that to get back on the hockey pitch I was going to have to be able to run for at least 40 minutes and outside. So, I started to give it a go.  After a few months, a friend suggested I should go out running with her cross country and aim for a 10km. At the time, I was horrified – the thought of running 10km was just completely unachievable coupled with it not being on the treadmill just seemed totally out of reach. But somehow, I ended up signing up for the ‘run up to Xmas’ at Moors Valley and completed it.

The Great South (10 miles) then followed and then I thought I’d give a half marathon a go. I picked one which sounded nice and scenic – the South Downs half heading out from Seaford, Sussex.  Many events followed including Clarendon marathon relay, Pewsey half, Brighton half … and probably the hardest event ever was the Combe Gibbet 16 miler – you catch a coach up to the top of the hill and have to run back to Overton.

My running then came to abrupt halt in 2014 when I had to have ACL surgery on my knee. It took a long time to recover, I put on a lot of weight, lost my running mojo and only did running as part of sport. It’s only since joining OS in March, I’ve started back up.

*Hurry up and take the picture…I don’t think I can stand up for much longer*

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Desk-2-marathon in 2 and a half years – New Forest marathon 2017 from Karen Connell’s perspective

Many months ago, Matt Pillinger, Matt Maiden and I arranged to run the New Forest Marathon together. As a trail marathon we wanted to enjoy it rather than push for a spectacular time on what shouldn’t be a PB course. As I was a marathon newbie the two Matts agreed to help me get through it.

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