When you tell people you’ve signed up to run a 5.3k race at 5.30am in the morning, most of them look at you like you’re a bit crazy! I felt a bit crazy as I got up at 4.30am on a Friday morning ready to get in my taxi at 5am and run around Nottingham city centre at half 5 in the morning.
Run 5.30 is an annual event where you can discover your city at a totally unknown time to you by running 5.3k at 5.30 in the morning. It’s a completely different feeling to wandering around the town centre at a normal time and it’s was so cool. The event began in Modena to encourage local people to take part in some physical activity and the creators now have 13 events across Italy, 3 in the UK and 2 in the USA. How great that Nottingham, Derby and Leicester are the UK ones? I think it really puts the East Midlands on the map!
On Friday 1st July I joined 700 other people to run in the event. I’m not usually a runner, I used to be but I’ve not run longer than 800m in a Crossfit WoD for a long time so I didn’t know how I was going to fair. I ran 5.3k in just under 30minutes and I was on the tram home by 6.05am! It was a totally weird feeling but it felt great to know that I could do something to push myself out of my comfort zone like that. The run was also supporting Nottingham based charity When You Wish Upon a Star this year which is awesome to know that you’re running for a good cause as well as for yourself. The next two Run 5.30 UK events will take place in Leicester on July 8th and Derby on July 15th, why not give it a go?
