Despite the best efforts of my PE teachers at school to put me off exercise as a way of staying fit and healthy......vicious wielding of wooden hockey sticks and cross country runs in mid-winter, clad only in a t shirt and voluminous bottle green knickers, I did, in my mid twenties, return to it.
A friend of mine persuaded me to start running with her. I use the term 'running' loosely and still do, We started slowly, walking whenever we needed to and not going very far. We are lucky in that we live 5 minutes away from the Tame Valley and so have 25 miles of beautiful riverside to run alongside if we wanted to.
At that time when I started running, it was a very popular sport and so there was always lots of road races to participate in and we very gradually increased the distances we were participating in, until eventually I managed to complete the London Marathon. That was a fantastic experience and ranks as one of the all time highs of my life.
Although I have never run this distance since, 25 years later I am still running, not very often and not very far. I go out with my sister on a Sunday morning and we run as far as we have things to talk about. it's a good way to keep in touch. During the week I go out on my own taking some music with me and there is no feeling like running through countryside in any weather to your favourite tunes.
I think I have managed to sustain the habit, just because for me, it has to be enjoyable. I only do as far and as fast as I feel I want to and when I don't feel good, I remind myself that no matter how slow or how short my run is, I have probably done more than 95% of the population could do, including people half my age!