Inspired to Write

I've seen this advertised in a couple of magazines now, and I've submitted my story to "Inspired to Run". You can read it here. I didn't know what category to put it under - it's more than "just" weight loss, or beginning running, or race success. It's a bit of everything, and a bit more besides. I submitted it and now I'm being critical again, thinking about all the things I could have said, but couldn't include within the 1200 word limit. How running has made me feel whole and in control. How it has changed my mind as well as my body. It's made me saner and happier. It's made me appreciate the steam rising off the lake on a cold morning, or the serenity of the canal before the world wakes up. The crunch of frost underfoot on a winter's run, and the clear blue skies of a May morning. I've run in the semi-darkness along a beach front in Spain, and I've seen parts of my city I never knew existed before, because I've just put on my trainers and explored. But despite not saying all those things, I still quite like what I submitted.

I don't know whether I want to win as such. The thought of having my starting weight emblazoned across multiple magazines together with my name and photos is a bit daunting as it would finally, irrevocably, reveal my identity (and out me to people who never saw me at my absolute highest weight). On the other hand, running kit, £1000 and a training session would be a lovely prize.

Mainly I just wanted to tell my story. Other people tell me that I inspire them, so I wanted to set my story free to inspire people who maybe don't hang around on weight loss boards or surfing through fatblogland. I don't want to become all evangelical, but running has changed my life for the better so completely that I feel like it would be selfish to keep that "secret" all to myself. If I can do it, other people can. [And if you want to rate what I wrote, feel free ;)]