A difficult start

I look stupid when I run.

Please, don't laugh. I am actually being serious.

Last night, my obsessiveness even forced me into pressganging my housemate into videoing me jogging in the garden.

"Do I look stupid mate? Or even funny, do I look funny?" I asked.

"Everyone looks a bit funny when they run. Don't worry about it," he replied.

Following a fit of giggles, he observed that I looked, in his words, 'almost chicken-like'.

Working on my stride before the Derby 10k in April is certainly a long-term aim for the coming weeks.

So, I'm all signed up for the 10k. I'm not sure why to be honest, because anyone that knows me will vouch for the fact that I utterly detest running.

Football mates joke that I run in ten yard squares and that having me on the team is similar to playing with one less man. I won't argue with them. I wasn't made to run.

Saying that though, I signed up for the Derby 10k almost without thought. "Yeah, I'll do it," I told workmates. "No problem at all. Looking forward to it."

In truth, I think I kind of liked the idea of being able to tell people I had 'done' the 10k. It never really crossed my mind that I would actually have to run it.

My passive words, which had pretty much signed me to a legally binding contract, came just before Christmas. Now, with just eight weeks to go until the big day, the sheer mention of the words '10k' makes me shudder.

I sat at my desk on Wednesday and collected my thoughts. If I don't get into some sort of training, my 10k would soon become nothing more than a breathless embarrassment.

So last night, almost five weeks behind my water-drinking, salad-eating colleagues, I thought it wise to take my first jog since an overindulgent festive period.

It was hardly an inspiring outing. Jogging through Oakwood, I completed two miles in one direction and seriously contemplated getting a taxi back.

Weighing in at just short of 15-and-a-half stone, if I was going to do this, changes would have to be made. Pizza is no longer my friend. The coming weeks are going to be difficult...