Incredibly, more active than ever!

Clare Jones got to the point where she could barely walk due to osteoarthritis. She assumed she would never be able to run. Then, her physio recommended more exercise!

I had convinced myself that I couldn’t run, even though it was something I had always wanted to do.

About two years ago I could hardly walk with osteoarthritis. I went to see an NHS physio to try and avoid painkillers and she recommended I increase my exercise and on reviewing my X-rays thought that there was no reason I couldn’t run a marathon!

I started swimming more and then in Jan 2020 decided to start the couch to 5k programme. That’s when the running bug got to me! I completed that and then spotted parkrun’s Women’s Day advertised on social media. The theme inspired me and I challenged myself to give it a go.

I only managed to do a couple of parkruns before lockdown struck but I started recording my (not)parkruns and kept in touch with my local parkrun on social media. I completed a virtual 50k challenge and raised over £100 for charity.

I have also inspired my daughter to start running. She’s 24 yrs and also started with the couch to 5k programme. We run together most of the time now and are currently doing the Riverside Resolution Run. Our challenge is to run 10k so we are increasing our distance weekly and got up to 7k this morning. We run 3 times a week usually completing a minimum of 5k each run.

I’m relatively pain free now as far as my knees are concerned. It’s amazing to think how bad the pain had got and that I could easily have become less and less active. Instead, I’m more active than I have been for years thanks to the NHS Physio!

I can’t wait to be able to do a real parkrun again at Riverside.

Clare Jones