Step by step

I started running with a friend  a couple of years ago. At first we couldn't stagger for more than about 10 minutes but slowly, step by step, and week by week, we got fitter. I now go running down by the sea twice a week. Like writing, it is something that I sometimes love, sometimes hate, but that I always feel better when I've done it. Like getting out your pen and paper and writing your first word, the hardest part of going for a run is putting on your trainers and getting out the door. The rest of it is almost easy. Like writing, you just go with it.

Running gives me time and space to think. Ideas come to me, things work themselves out. It is great to go for a run when you have been hunched over the keyboard and you need something physical to get you out of your head. My favourite time to go is first thing in the morning before the world has awoken. I went out yesterday morning under a blue cloudless sky.It was already getting hot. As I ran through the streets I could smell wafts of roses and jasmine in people's front gardens and hear the sounds of children getting up for breakfast. The sea was as still as a lake. 

Do you run? If you don't, you should try it. Believe me, I was never the running kind but now I love it. Or what else do you recommend to get you out of your mind and into your body?