Happiness Of The Long Distance Runner

How the Yorkshire countryside can help when you want to get healthy

- Wendy Pratt

I’ve started running again after signing up for the Great North Run to raise money for the brilliant charity Tommy’s. I’m carrying a little extra weight at the minute – I call it my winter hibernation layer – due to a fondness for wine and cake, and am quite a long way from having a runner’s figure or a runner’s endurance or actually even the rudiments of good balance, which would at least stop me going face down in the mud whenever I have to take evasive action (dogs, logs, children, etc).

I did the GNR last year and thought it would kill me. I was never doing it again. Then, for reasons I can’t explain, I signed up again. So, now the weather’s better, I’m out three times a week running (shuffling) along. If you see me, give me a thumbs-up. I’ll be the one being defibrillated.