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Regional press news - this story published 26 February 2007

Post & Times reporter in training for charity run

by Dave Knapper, Post & Times

Post & Times reporter Dave Knapper has stepped from behind the comfort of his computer, donned a pair of running trainers and has started training for the Cheadle Five Mile Run where he hopes to raise some money for Homelink. Here he tells how his training is going in preparation for the event on March 4.

There is something inherently wrong with waking up at 6am.

Everywhere is dark, cold, and in my slightly half awake state I trip over, possibly every object, lying on the floor.

To add to this catalogue of annoying events the light in my kitchen is, at best, inconsistent, which makes it extremely difficult when I try to create an energy drink.

This almost comedic routine is played out every morning as I desperately try to persuade my body it can get me through a five-mile run.

Once I have managed to escape the house with only a relatively bruised toe from stubbing it on every cupboard, door, table leg and several other inanimate objects, I lethargically chew on a mint to rid myself of the taste left by an evil cocktail designed to prepare my body for the impending work out.

The gym is an unusual place at 6.30am. Everyone seems intent on putting a brave face on what is a ridiculous thing to be doing at such an hour.

My fellow gym-goers aren’t the only ones with an issue with their surroundings.

Dave in training

Part of my brain can’t come to terms with what I want to do, and it’s, rather frustratingly, advising my body to ignore all the requests from the other side of my grey matter which has adopted a ‘the sooner we start, the sooner we finish’ policy.

With my entire body at odds with itself, I stumble onto the treadmill and keep pressing buttons until it informs me I’m running on a hill. This is like no other hill I have encountered, it’s shaped like some kind of bizarre rollercoaster.

But I didn’t enter this training routine without backup, a little something to help me through.

Before rumours begin about a reporter using steroids to cheat his way to victory, my little extra something is an MP3 player loaded with music taken from the Rocky films.

It may sound cheesy and all very stereotypical to listen to Eye Of The Tiger but it works.

I feel like a dung beetle, but without the dung, obviously, as I bend and contort myself to lift the equivalent of my own body weight on the bench press.

I’m no stranger to the gym. I go religiously to the ridicule of my friends and colleagues but it has become an addiction. Constantly trying to better myself in what I can lift.

But I have had to alter my training routine.

More running on the treadmill and going first thing in the morning to try and increase my output.

I’ve even started to sound like a fitness obsessive — output — what possessed me to use that word? I’ve began road running to acclimatise myself to what to expect in March and apart from a few run-ins with the neighbour’s over zealous dog, it’s going well.

Plus I’ve received excellent advice from friends and family — get a haircut. My solution — a head band. Their reaction — unimpressed.

The Cheadle Five Mile Run will start and end at Painsley Catholic College. Sounds simple. But I don’t think it will be.

The thought of doing something to help Homelink will certainly help spur me on as I amble around the winding, steep country lanes.

Organisers at the charity were rocked when they lost out on lottery funding and such a vital service needs some support. I hope there is a service like Homelink around when I am in my older years.

However, after the run, I may need a different kind of service to help me. Wish me luck.

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