Charlotte Stevens

A flyer through my door for circuit training in Shanganagh Park encouraged me to start running. I went along to the first session and it was three days before I could walk again, I was so unfit. It was suggested that swimming or jogging a few days a week would complement the training. For years I walked the dogs in the park and would see Sean. Noelle and many of the other regular runners and it often crossed my mind that it would be lovely to be fit enough to go out for a twenty minute run after work to clear the mind. So I started alternating jogging the length of a field and walking a length and was thrilled when after months of slogging I could finally jog 5k without stopping.

The regular runners in the park were very encouraging, all offering completely different advice and tips! It was with a degree of nervousness that I joined Bray Runners in the Spring of 2011 but I was made feel very welcome and encouraged to enter races and join in the training sessions. That year I entered the Dublin Race Series as I wanted to complete race distances up to half marathon distance. I was delighted to have started running building up to completing a half marathon days before I reached 50.

I had great hopes of improving my running and entering more races in 2012. However after some Spring races I had to go back to the beginning again as I became anemic and even walking a kilometer became difficult. For a month I could only manage a mile at a very slow jog, and gradually built it up to four mile runs. Getting back to the Thursday training sessions in the park last Summer helped me return to racing and complete the Fit4Life Race series. I had learnt the hard way the importance of nutrition to a runner.

This year my goal is to try and improve my times at 5K and 5 miles and maybe build up to a ten mile race later in the Summer but most important to me is to keep on running and enjoying it. While racing is fun and improving my times is great, I really just love running and get so much enjoyment out of putting on my runners and going for that run after a long day. Improving times are just the icing on the cake!

2011, Pb for 5k, 24.34.

2012, Pb for 5k, 23.32.

2013, Pb for 5k, 22.26