Your Pace or Mine?: What Running Taught Me About Life, Laughter and Coming Last

The secret to getting started? St Francis of Assisi summed it up perfectly: ‘Start by doing what is necessary. Then do what is possible. And suddenly you’re doing the impossible.’

To help me get out of bed early and go for a run I’d write RMYFGFTWD on my hand the night before: it stood for ‘Running makes you feel good for the whole day’.

far, I’ve come to the conclusion that running isn’t about the time you do, but the time you have while doing it.

Through countless miles on tarmac, tracks and trails it’s been a revelation – and a relief – to realise that you don’t have to love doing running to love running, at least not all of the time. You don’t have to feel like doing it to want to keep doing it. And you certainly don’t have to be good at it to succeed.