The Starting Line

OK.
So here goes.

I am a natural pessimist. I get it from my mother and I can see it in my son. The older one. The younger one is just nuts. But it's in my family.

People tell me "anything is possible" and I nod and agree with them but I don't really believe it. I think that people's limits are different to one another, and that we underestimate them, but they're still limits. I think I could probably, given time, become a decent skier or oil painter or write a not-entirely-unreadable novel. But that doesn't mean I have it in me to be Franz Klammer or Rembrandt or Dan Brown*. Not everyone can do everything well is my point.

But last week I sat in a room and someone told me that "anything is possible" and I nodded and agreed with him but, and I still can't quite understand why, I believed him. Actually it was more than one person, and it was a room full of other people with whom I work and although actually I didn't completely believe him or them it was enough. Enough to make me think differently and try to be more positive.

The people in the room said think of a goal and then double it. They said aim high and even if you fail you'll achieve more than people who aim low and hit their target. They said if you believe you can't do something you won't be able to. They said go home and practice spinning a plastic plate on a plastic pole. Even to a pessimist all this makes some kind of logical sense, although the plate spinning is really starting to piss me off.

I've been pretending to get fit for years. I play football once a week and badminton about once a year. I own a bike. It's in great condition for the same reason the crown jewels aren't all scuffed and scratched. I bought an eye-wateringly expensive gym membership 18 months ago, figuring that I wouldn't want to waste that kind of money and never go. Plus I knew I would use a tatty, under-equipped cheap gym as an excuse not to go. So now I don't go to my expensive gym, and I play my football once a week and I tell myself I'm in better shape than most other people and than I really am. I wish I'd worked as hard actually getting fit as I do at pretending to.

Anyway so remember the people in the room? The people in the room gave each of us a buddy. Buddies help each other to reach their goals. This is a good thing because I am going to hate reaching my goal and so I need all the help I can get. My buddy seems like a very nice guy. He's probably going to have to get a whole lot nastier.

So my goal then. My goal is to get fit, basically. It's to lose precisely 17lb in weight and run 10K by August 14 2014. This date dropped into my inbox last night, in the form of an email containing an open invitation to a local 10K fun(!) run round a nearby park. Perfect location, perfect timing and perfect price (£12). If that wasn't a sign from a higher power then, well, it was an email from a friend who likes running and just sent it to everyone.

Either way, damn. I'm going to have to do this then.

For context, I've never run more than 2K before. That's my current limit. Pathetic, I know. This is why I am going to do something about it.

This blog is going to be my other buddy. It's going to help me make me get fit. That's the idea.

I have not yet figured out whether (fairly) drastic weight loss and a large increase in fitness are compatible.  I don't know if there is any chance of me completing this or if so whether 3 months is a sensible timescale. I don't know but I don't care at the moment. Because someone told me anything is possible and I believe them.


*I'm kidding about Dan Brown, obviously.