“What will go first?’ I ask myself, “will my lungs burst out of my chest in an almost comical fashion, or will my knees take me oh-so-not-elegantly crashing to the floor?”
These are my thoughts on the Bristol 10k. Some will be laughing at me, thinking a measley 10k shouldn’t cause such an extreme reaction.

Jen’s not your prototypical runner but she’s running for what she believes in! Photo: Katrina Pike.

You are the kind of sick people who get enjoyment out of endurance sports, who are happy to part with cash in sports shops, who would never dream of drinking on a school night but discuss the value of energy drinks! (Yes this is jealous, bitter ranting. So what?) I am not one of you, this is my Everest…and, currently, I think it’s defeating me.

I have been waiting for the click, you know, the point where you actually ‘love’ running. It is yet to come, I don’t love it. It doesn’t love me. God did not make me a runner. He made me a coffee drinker who, at some point, found her place on a school sports teams due to her enthusiasm and big mouth, not down to any kind of skill or talent. Until a few months ago, I was serenely happy to look back romantically at those earlier fitter, healthier, sportier days as the time when I peaked athletically.

Turns out that wasn’t enough! In a short, and as I recall, a highly manipulative conversation with a colleague, I found myself signing up to the 10k for some great causes. One of which I work part-time for – a fact which said college used to her advantage. So I agreed. I started training. I went to the launch.

You see, I am part of a thing called ‘Love Running’. Ironic, I know.

‘Love Running’ is a group of over 550 crazy people who have signed up to do the 10k in aid of the needy, the oppressed and the poor. We are supporting Bristol projects: St. Peter’s Hospice, The Crisis Centre (recently on Channel 4), and ‘The Noise’ community action development programme as well as an educational programme with STOP THE TRAFFIK and a World Vision Project in Zimbabwe. The idea, is that we see ‘love’ running to the poor, oppressed and needy… Get it?

Well that’s all well and good if you can run. It turns out that I can’t. Yet, in this insanity, and yes depravity (because no other word can express how I look when I run) I find myself laughing and crying.

This is a challenge that takes me out of my comfort zone, and puts me with hundreds of others who are dragging their butts around a 6.2 mile course because they want to see change. More than that, they want to feel change. We will never meet the orphans in Zimbabwe, or the girls from trafficking hot spots who will be given an education, or the addict who needs a hot meal and a welcoming face. But they are pushing 550 people to get off their butts and start running for change.

Maybe a donation would have simply been easier but there is something in committing to something to spend weeks training, and reflecting on the plight of others. Rarely have I felt so close to others, and to the belief in that we need to come together to help each other through.

So even if my running is more like a stumbling red hippo with a lung condition I do see love running, yeah I do, the love is running thick and fast.

Jen Conlan

For more info check out: www.woodlandschurch.net/love-running
Or if you’re feeling generous www.justgiving.com/jen-conlan
Jen works for STOP THE TRAFFIK. To find out more, read our article Opinion: would you like child labour with your chocolate?