At the top of Primrose Hill, where I go running every weekend, there is a quote from the poet William Blake:
I have conversed with the spiritual sun. I saw him on Primrose Hill.
Every time I reach the top of that hill it makes me smile and sums up why I started to run in January this year.
Running gives me peace. It helps me dream of things I never get time to think about during my full working day or my evenings spent with my family of four children.
I have no time for exercise, no time to go to the gym but I can run all I do is put my trainers on and go.
I dont run for long, half an hour max and I dont run the whole time: I sprint up and down the hill, run like a child around the dusty old track at Regents Parks listening to Nirvana or jog at a pace so slow I could sip tea from a china cup without spilling it.
But running is my spiritual time out: and it's helped me get slimmer after four pregnancies, calm my sometimes stressful mind and also put music back in my life, a hobby I neglected in the chaos of trying to 'have-it-all.
Sometimes I run the 5k from my office to home (twice a week if I can). Once I accidentally ran nearly 10k I was so carried away with my new playlist.
I've been able to watch the cherry blossom bloom in the park, and I've had the chance to high five random strangers jogging past me recognising each other as lone joggers in the pouring rain.
Running has given me headspace and taught me that all you have to know when you want to do something is - just to do it!
