At first I was sitting at a piano just making noise, now I can play a song: Victoria Snowdon on learning to run

Share

When you really break it down, running is as natural an activity as eating or sleeping. People have been doing it since the beginning of time.  Animals do it out of instinct and Bruce Springsteen even told us we were "Born to Run."

So it was with that in mind that Victoria Snowdon decided to give running a shot. "I've run in the past, not a lot, but I've always been pretty active."  Prior to taking up running Victoria had been cycling to work, playing recreational soccer and taking fitness classes once or twice a week.  "I found that getting to the gym at a certain time was a little too regimented for me" explains Victoria.  "I like that I can just tie my shoes and run whenever I want."

With snow on the ground, Victoria has put her bike away for the season, opting instead to run to work three times a week.  "I found it really difficult at first.  It would take me about 45-50 minutes to get to work" Victoria says, but she continued to push and now, only weeks into her new running routine, she has reduced her time by almost 10 minutes per run.

Running is natural in some ways, but to be good at it, like anything else, you have to practice.  "I always find it funny when someone tells me that they couldn't run for 30 or 40 minutes.  I think, well maybe you couldn't, but eventually you could work your way up to that.  You probably couldn't sit down at a piano and start playing a song either, but you could learn."  For Victoria, that is what the first few months of being a runner have been like.  "At first I was sitting at a piano just making noise, now I can play a song."

Victoria ran her first 10-kilometer race not long ago.  "It was a learning experience, that's for sure.  I wasn't expecting to win the race or anything like that.  I just wanted to run at my pace and have fun."  In the end, Victoria failed to reach her goal of finishing in under an hour, but feels like next time, that goal is well within reach.  "I've been pushing myself and I know I'm faster today than I was at that time.  I'd like to go back next year and see how my time compares."

"I had often heard runners say that running gave them more energy," says Victoria.  "I couldn't see how that was possible, but now I know it's true."  Victoria says she definitely has more energy at work on days that she runs in.  "Maybe it's the fact that I get that time to think," she guesses.  "My job can be stressful at times, and that 40 or so minutes that I'm on the road really gives me the time I need to sort my thoughts out."

The benefits of becoming a runner have been somewhat surprising to Victoria.  "I wanted to keep fit and maybe lose a couple of pounds," she says, but what she wasn't expecting was the effect that running would have on her emotional health.  "I had heard about the runner's high and endorphins, but now I know that they are very real."  Victoria says that starting the day with a run is more exhilarating than a cup of coffee, "It's also nice not to have to fight the crowds on the subway."

Victoria knows she is lucky to live in one of the most beautiful areas of Toronto.  "Its amazing, I pass by all the stunning shops in the Yorkville area of the city, with the CN Tower in the distance and do a little window shopping on my way by.  When I was on the subway, or even on my bike, I just couldn't notice these things."

Joshua Dawson