About Anna
My running journey began quite recently, and late in my life at 48. I believed I wasn’t a runner. At primary school I used to dread sports day with its ubiquitous running race, and I used to hate cross country running as a teenager, always getting back in the last 3 out of around 40 girls. Several of my friends run and really enjoy it, and I started to hear about the health benefits of running, specifically around peri-menopause and menopause. I have experienced low level joint issues for many years and had thought I would probably never be able to run. About 4 years ago I joined a local gym and started getting much fitter. Being fitter has given me the confidence to try all sorts of physical activities. At the beginning of 2021 I decided to take the plunge and start running. I began running intervals, but pretty quickly worked out that it suited me more to run as far as I could without stopping, and I gradually kept increasing the distance I could run. Within about a month I was running 3 miles continuously, the furthest I had ever run in all my life!
I heard about Women On The Run from a FaceBook post of a local friend, and I thought it would be great to join a running group to help push me further. I was a bit nervous going along my first time, worrying that I wouldn’t be able to keep up with everyone (please never worry about this, we all run at different paces and use looping to make sure everyone stays together). The women in the group were so warm and welcoming. After running by myself for a while it was lovely to be in the midst of a group with happy chatter surrounding me. It has been a joy getting to know everyone, and it has been so inspiring too. Not long after I joined I completed my first parkrun at Cranbrook. It was a great feeling being part of a large group of runners, and seeing some familiar WOTR faces was a huge support too. Then in the late Autumn of that year someone mentioned The Grizzly… I wanted to try trail running and the Cub (around 9 miles) seemed like an achievable goal.
Preparing for the Grizzly was a baptism of fire! One of our members organised some training runs around Branscombe and I got acquainted with the pleasure of running on pebbles and up and down very steep hills. Over the two months of practice runs I saw huge improvements in my fitness and stamina. Our run leaders also organised some effort based runs, with lots of sprinting practice. At this point I realised two things, one I really like trail running, and it’s much easier on my joints, and two I enjoy varying my speed, sometimes I up the pace quite dramatically, and often on an incline. This is quite useful as a run leader if I need to get to the front in a hurry! In the end I ran the Grizzly Cub in just over 2 hours, it was such an amazing feeling crossing the finish line. SInce then I have entered a few different races and really enjoy the focus this gives to my training.
Signing up to be a run leader has been a good way of ensuring I run regularly, whatever the weather! I enjoy meeting new members and helping them settle in, and I particularly enjoy leading our summer runs when we get out and about and off-road. Whatever your running goals I am sure being part of WOTR will support and enhance your experience.
Anna Bromley Honiton WOTR Run Leader
I heard about Women On The Run from a FaceBook post of a local friend, and I thought it would be great to join a running group to help push me further. I was a bit nervous going along my first time, worrying that I wouldn’t be able to keep up with everyone (please never worry about this, we all run at different paces and use looping to make sure everyone stays together). The women in the group were so warm and welcoming. After running by myself for a while it was lovely to be in the midst of a group with happy chatter surrounding me. It has been a joy getting to know everyone, and it has been so inspiring too. Not long after I joined I completed my first parkrun at Cranbrook. It was a great feeling being part of a large group of runners, and seeing some familiar WOTR faces was a huge support too. Then in the late Autumn of that year someone mentioned The Grizzly… I wanted to try trail running and the Cub (around 9 miles) seemed like an achievable goal.
Preparing for the Grizzly was a baptism of fire! One of our members organised some training runs around Branscombe and I got acquainted with the pleasure of running on pebbles and up and down very steep hills. Over the two months of practice runs I saw huge improvements in my fitness and stamina. Our run leaders also organised some effort based runs, with lots of sprinting practice. At this point I realised two things, one I really like trail running, and it’s much easier on my joints, and two I enjoy varying my speed, sometimes I up the pace quite dramatically, and often on an incline. This is quite useful as a run leader if I need to get to the front in a hurry! In the end I ran the Grizzly Cub in just over 2 hours, it was such an amazing feeling crossing the finish line. SInce then I have entered a few different races and really enjoy the focus this gives to my training.
Signing up to be a run leader has been a good way of ensuring I run regularly, whatever the weather! I enjoy meeting new members and helping them settle in, and I particularly enjoy leading our summer runs when we get out and about and off-road. Whatever your running goals I am sure being part of WOTR will support and enhance your experience.
Anna Bromley Honiton WOTR Run Leader