I am running the Plymouth Race for Life 5k next weekend (Cancer Research UK), any donations are gratefully received, but please, no pressure

If you have been reading this blog for a while you might remember that cancer killed my dad nearly a year ago now. I miss him every single day and it breaks my bloody heart that his best friend in the world - my mum - who he was married to for 50 years is now on her own and doesn’t get to hang out with the love of her life. My parents were inseparable. I would guess that most of us here have lost family and friends to this bastard disease, or even had a brush with it ourselves……………

I don’t know if I have mentioned it here before, but back in February I took it upon myself to do the Couch to 5k running thing. My wife did it as well. I turned 50 in February but I didn’t suddenly get one of those midlife, I need to get myself in shape crises. I had been thinking about doing Couch to 5k for a while, and my wife and I were definitely “encouraged” (hassled) by our obsessed endurance running younger daughter that running would be good for us. We have always been walking fit and we go for multiple dog walks at a pace which I never see anybody else walking at, but it still ain’t running. Turning 50 was as good a time as any to give it a crack.

If you know me or have seen photos or videos of me then you will notice that I am seriously not your typical runner! But I wanted to lose a bit of weight and do something to ensure I was properly fishing fit, and I didn’t want to do some faddy diet which wasn’t going to make me any fitter anyway. I could always get up and down the cliffs or yomp to more distant fishing marks, but I wanted to be able to do it easier, push further without having to think about how tiring it could be, and be able to fish 100% effectively because I was properly recovered. Couch to 5k it was going to be then, with the aim to carry on running if I completed it.

And note the word “if” above. Back when I started Couch to 5k (the free NHS app) it was a struggle to “run” for a minute and then walk for a minute and then run another minute etc. I can remember how stiff the tops of my thighs felt after day one of the nine week Couch to 5k programme. I remember looking ahead through the app and thinking no bloody way is this possible, I am surely going to fail it. I remember looking ahead with my wife to the last run of week five I think it was, and both of us thought no way would we ever manage 20mins of running without a break. But we did it, and we both completed the nine week programme - 30 min runs! Somehow it works if you work at it, and that is taking into account my distinct lack of running physique! I got some wicked shin-splints from time to time and Google suggested I needed to stop running and rest instead, but I thought sod that, I was in the right headspace to actually do Couch to 5k, so I carried on and got through them without too much hassle.

I now run three times a week - which I still can’t quite believe is possible. I reckon it was into about week three of Couch to 5k that I noticed how it was getting easier to yomp up the cliffs in my waders with a fairly heavy rucksack on my back. Now it’s almost a giggle how much easier it is to get back from a fishing spot. I went wrasse fishing yesterday afternoon and I really pushed it all the way back from the water’s edge to my Epic Berlingo, no stops to catch my breath or anything like that, and it feels so good to recover so quickly as well. If you knew where I was that isn’t too shabby. Most of my runs are 5k or so, but I have managed to push it out to 7k without too much hassle and I want to see if at some point in the nearish future I can manage a 10k. I was a few seconds away from breaking 30mins for a 5k the other morning - which I know isn’t fast when compared to proper runners, but I remind myself that back in February I was struggling to run for a minute. All four of us now run here at home so the dog is loving life even more. We basically use her as an exercise tool and she doesn’t even know it! Whenever anybody gets their running kit on the dog knows she’s going to have a bit of fun - walking, running and fishing. It’s a dog’s life for sure.

I am obviously not a fast runner, but I look at the splits my 16 year old girl ran yesterday on a very hilly 16k run and I am perfectly comfortable that as a 50 year old man who is naturally heavy and has torn both calf muscles in the last few years (I was worried they would flare up but they have given me no hassle so far), I am never going to be what anybody would call a fast runner. But I am doing it, I am almost enjoying it, and if I can do it then I would suggest that you can as well if you are thinking about starting something like Couch to 5k. Put the work in to make your fishing easier, that was so much of my motivation to carry on with it and become a “runner”. This will not sound remotely impressive to any of you here who have run for years, but I ran a total of 62.1 kilometres last month and because I have obviously never been a runner I still can’t really believe that’s me actually doing it.

Anyway, long story short is that a while ago my wife signed us up for the Plymouth Race for Life 5k next Sunday, 11th June. We are running for the Bowelbabe Fund because it was bowel cancer and its nasty habit of metastasizing which killed my dad. The event next Sunday is very much not a race, and entrants are encouraged to run or walk or do whatever it takes to get around, but I fully intend to run the 5k course and I will be thinking of my awesome and much loved dad every step of the way. Times are horribly tough and scary at the moment, but if you can manage to donate anything to my 5k Race for Life I will be eternally grateful. Cancer is a bastard disease and less people should be dying from it. When my dad was diagnosed and then operated on for the first time - he had a lot of serious operations for a number of years afterwards - he was told that his chances of getting through that first bout of cancer would have been far less only a few years previously. Thanks for reading, I know it’s meant to be a fishing blog so I hope you don’t mind a bit of Monday morning getting personal stuff.