A Winter’s Trail

So, you don’t think you were born to run. In fact you don’t think you were born to travel north of Bradford (from which point in the country vitamin D supplements are well advised). But you’re in Durham for the winter; a long, dark, cold one for that matter and sugar, sleep, and baggy jumpers have never seemed so good.

But instead of calling in another box of Krispy Kremes or catching up on Made in Chelsea, your body wants to run. Runner’s World contributor Hazel Silver said, ”buried deep within the muscle fibres of each human being is a memory of running. Via a long line of ancestors, each one of us has been given a body that is designed to run”.

As much as you try to forget it, the challenge is there. If actually you’ve got the tools to do it; two legs and a decent sense of co-ordination (i.e. basic walking) it’s in your biology to be a runner.

Don’t fight it

With the Olympic left overs looking a bit sorry for themselves now, union jack memorabilia gone back to being tacky and those plastic flags lying dejected in a closet, we could be mistaken for thinking we were ever interested in sport.

But if you try running I guarantee it will do something to counter that. Running can help you feel more positive, confident and powerful. Nell McAndrew, marathon addict and yummy mummy, says because of running she can ‘take on the world’. We all need a bit of that attitude.

Whether you’re going for gold like Mo Farah or in it for the endurance, putting trainers to trail path can clear your head and change your mood. It is true that clear mid-winter skies and frosty bare branches are the perfect anecdote to the depression born of switching on the central heating.

So, get started. If you need people to run with DUAXC are a friendly bunch and some colleges, like Hild Bede, have running clubs.

P.S If you run in the dark no one will see you anyway.