Cherry popped!!!

It's official, I am now a runner!!!

To my shock and awe, I managed to do a complete lap of Brockwell park without stopping, a distance of precisely 2815 metres, which by my reckoning means I'm a third of the way there already!

I learned four important things tonight:

1) silently screaming "I am a Demi God!" to yourself when only halfway round is officially known in running circles as "getting a bit ahead of yourself". 500 yards later and my stomach was trying to burn its way through my rib cage so it could look me in the eye as it told me what a bastard I was.

2) I run like Paula Radcliffe - all wobbly head and gangly limbs. This might not be the pulling opportunity I was hoping for.

3) You only realise how wrecked you are when you stop running and the horizon catches up with you.

4) You only realise how sweaty you are when you get back to your house. Still, I managed to get a nice wet patch on my t-shirt, just like those proper runners off the telly.

I had a couple of scares prior to doing it - the first when I asked the girls if they'd be in for a while and it turned out they were leaving to go jogging in the park as well (it now turns out we are a flat of brockwell joggers - my other flatmate Nick had just got back from the same thing. I might get t-shirts printed), which of course terrified me as they are quite healthy and I had visions of them cruising past me as I stood doubled over retching. I spent the walk to the park trying to think of intricate routes where they wouldn't see me. Then, when I got to the park, I couldn't believe the effort it took to actually make myself start to jog..... It's almost as if I was scared to because I didn't know what would happen if I did.

But anyway, enough of my ramblings. Hope you're all happy I have finally started this thing - thanks for all the encouragement/scoldings I've been getting. I'm away to wipe the sweat from my brow that is still literally dripping off, even after a shower. Can't believe I've got a buzz from exercise.

Grrrrrrr!!!!!!!!