My name is Jamie and I’m 26 year old Yorkshire girl! Here’s a bit of background about me and how I began running.
I’ve always struggled with my weight and had tried every sort of diet with my weight just constantly going up and down. I think when I was at my heaviest I was in denial. The photos from my graduation in 2011 really hit home and shocked me by how big I looked!
I felt embarrassed and couldn’t believe I had let it get that bad!! I decided I had to do something about it and start a ‘new’ diet where I still ate the same rubbish as I always did but I started to exercise daily. At first just 10/15 mins building it up to nearly an hour for each session. I managed to loose about 3 stone and started to feel great! I had gone from a size 20 to a size 14/16 and everyone commented on how good I was looking! I then started a new job and stopped exercising… worst mistake ever!! Within a year I had gained nearly all the weight back and was at square one again!
In March 2014 I decided I really needed to change as I wasn’t happy at all with myself. I didn’t like to go out with friends as I was ‘the fat one’. I hated the summer as I felt like I needed to cover myself up all the time and generally wasn’t enjoying life.
I joined the gym at the end of March and also changed my eating habits. I cut out snacking on an evening, tried to introduce new foods into my diet and stopped getting takeaways.
My interest in running started when I downloaded the couch to 5k app and started to follow it. At first I could only run for 90 seconds without stopping but I stuck with it and followed the training plan. On the day of the London marathon 2014 I ran my first ever mile without stopping whilst watching the race on the tv a the gym. Even though it took me 14.30mins, I couldn’t believe i had ran for that long without stopping after only 3 weeks of training!! The day after was the day I signed up for the Leeds 10k which was on the 20th July, giving me 3 months to train.
In the months that followed I continued going to the gym, eating healthy and started training with a personal trainer who new my goal and helped me work towards it by improving my general fitness and weight loss. By the day before the 10k I had lost 24lbs and could run for 30mins without stopping. I managed to complete the 10k in 1:20:38 which I was really proud of as it was the hottest day of the year so far!!
The day after the 10k I signed up for a half marathon! I thought why not give myself something to aim for! It’s the Leeds Half Marathon on the 10th May 2015.
I continued to train and decided to do another 10k before winter came so signed up for the Leeds Abbey Dash which was a few weeks ago on the 16th November. I completed this in 1:15:30 which meant i had knocked off over 5 mins. I felt ok with this result but felt i could have done better.
To date I have lost bang on 4 and a half stone but still have around 1 and a half to go to get to my goal weight. Iv’e also set myself a target of under 2 hour 20 mins to finish the half marathon next year!
So that’s my journey so far!
YorkshireGirlRunning 