Have you ever been in a period of time that you hoped would never end? I am feeling a bit like this at present – it is well with my soul and I have so much to be thankful for – can’t life just stop right here and I keep re-living this time for a while?

I have figured out how to do this. Start running and use an app that is dodgy. It actually works! Keith has been talking about returning to running for a while now. In his youth he ran often. Back in our courting days, I spent some time in the US and I would receive snail mail from him with detailed descriptions of the runs he had done.

I suspect I took up running to impress him. Or is this what you do when you are in love? However, my first run was done in San Francisco at midnight to welcome in the 1980s. That was a while ago now. Neither of us have run for years – I stopped when I started having children – too tricky. Keith’s knees gave him pain and he reluctantly gave it up too so we took up other forms of exercise.

I downloaded an app onto my ipod touch – actually I found I had two called couch to 5k. This morning we decided to start – me usisng my app and Keith just running.

I thought this looked like a great place to run the day before.

We found a circular trail and an oval that looked perfect for us and they are barely five minutes away. Keith set off for the oval, while I turned on my program and obediently followed its instructions for a thirty minute work out – week 1 day 1 of a six week program. I am a fairly compliant person and have no problems (mostly) with obeying instructions. I thought this program would be a gentle way to start moving without killing myself – but it wasn’t. The voice said jog and I jogged and kept on jogging – but it seemed like a very long minute.

I jogged up three hills and then finally onto an oval. Walked and then the voice said “jog” so I did and I kept on and on for 8 minutes. When my program said that I still had fourteen minutes to go, Keith assured me that I had been going for forty-five and was sure I had run 4 km during my workout. I have to confess it was not easy. To keep myself going, I reminded myself I had cycled up hills and could do this too. One minute of jogging seemed to go for a very long time. In fact, I had the sensation that time had slowed right down and was in no hurry to move.

The question is: will I get up and do it again? I plan to, but will use a different app! I have tested it already and its thirty minutes matches the thirty minutes on the clock.