First a dream

Walt Disney once said ‘ all our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them’.  During my first guide run with Ruth I learned that her dream was to run the Great North Run (GNR), an iconic half marathon held annually in Newcastle. A half marathon is 21.1 kilometres or, if we’re being traditional, 13.1 miles. It is more than 4 time the distance of a parkrun. Ruth had already taken the first courageous step towards making her dream come true but even I know that training for a half marathon requires more than a 5k run every Saturday. 

I think many of us will admit that the covid-19 pandemic had an impact on our health and wellbeing. In the first lockdown, we were more motivated to be active under the misguided belief that it would not last as long as it did. As restrictions continued and guidance became more confusing the drive to be active diminished; unhealthy habits started forming and before long many of us were complaining about our clothes shrinking in the wash. I fell into this category, I was struggling to get back into running and made every excuse not to go out for a run (too hot, too wet, too late, too Wednesday 🤷‍♀️). Admittedly I am not a huge fan of running on my own and when I run with music I run to the beat. There must be occasions when I look like I’m running in slow motion. My motivation for asking Ruth if she wanted to go for a midweek run was about supporting her to run regularly; the reality is she would be supporting me too. 

As I was driving home from parkrun that day I realised that I had not asked if Ruth had a place or a guide for GNR. Places are allocated by ballot with no guarantee that you’ll be successful. It really is your luck; I know of people who have been very lucky in obtaining a ballot place on their first attempt whilst others have tried several times. I wasn’t sure how guide running in official events worked but I already had a place in the GNR rolled over from the previous year.  Offering to guide with Ruth seemed the most natural suggestion to make. I fully expected her to politely decline; I was pleasantly surprised when she accepted the offer. And so, the plan to make a dream come true was well and truly established.