Member's Stories - Episode 2!

A new blog post from us - this time from one of our lovely new runners...

Why I run and how Notts Womens Runners have helped save my life

Hello my name is Claire and Im a runaholic!

I am 42 years of age, a mum to a 17 year old son, step mum to a 26 year old daughter and Nanna to a 5 year old grandson.
I work full time in service improvement at a local hospital and am a registered nurse by background.

In July 2014 I weighed just over 24 and a half stone, my two favourite things were sitting and eating, either together or separately.

After years of being severely overweight I was offered the opportunity to have weight loss surgery on the NHS and had a gastric bypass procedure on the 2nd July.

As my weight began to reduced I started feeling better in myself, getting up in the morning was much less of a chore, I slept better and generally had more zest for life.

My mind started to turn to exercise just before Christmas and it was a chance conversation with a colleague Lisa that led me to find Notts Womens Runners, it’s like everything was destined to help me. I stalked the group for a while on Facebook then plucked up the courage to text Zoe.

I bought trainers and some clothes and on a very cold winters Monday stood with trepidation in Tesco Top Valleys foyer.
And there were loads of us! I was expecting maybe 10 mad fools fuelled with post-Christmas regrets and New Years resolutions, how wrong I was.

We all trooped out in to the cold led by Zoe and Sarah, helped by an army of wondrous people who had given up their spare time for the love of running.

We were a splendid sight that night,  30 plus women parading through the streets joined in a common goal, we forged friendships and laughed and ran, for a whole minute! Run, walk, run, walk shouted Zoe …and we did, all too soon it was over, the buzz when we returned to Tesco was electric, normal people fuelled by achievement and excitement embracing the #thisgirlcan.

Seven weeks on and I feel emotional when I reflect on mine and the groups achievements. I remember running for three minutes and how elated I felt, I wanted to tell everyone, I even rang my mum from Tesco car park, and last night I ran for 31 minutes…ME! The woman who used to get exhausted walking from one part of the hospital to another, whose back and legs hurt after food shopping…ME!

And do you know what? I wanted to carry on!

I have met some amazing inspirational people, I owe a lot to our little group of local girls Lisa, Penny, Vee, Mary and Jenny affectionately known as the Tesco Trotters and to the amazing Zoe and Sarah and their helpers for all of their help and inspiration.