Ready, steady, run! with Lewes Athletic Club

As Lewes Athletic Club relaunches its ever-popular beginners’ course, we talk to one of the club’s leaders about getting off to a running start.

 

“Everyone can run – it’s in our DNA. It’s good for your body, your mind and your self-esteem. Who doesn’t want to be fitter and trimmer and feel better about themselves? And, if I can do it, anyone can!”

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In 2013, Lewes Athletic Club member Mark Pappenheim had a triple heart bypass after his coronary arteries had clogged up following 40 years of indolence and bad diet. “Basically,” he admits, “I hadn’t done any exercise since leaving school.” After his op, though, the NHS provided six weeks of free “cardiac rehab” exercise classes – “and to my surprise, as a lifelong lazybones and lover of classical music, I found I actually enjoyed prancing about to old Seventies disco hits”, and he’s kept going to these weekly aerobic classes ever since.

 

Then in spring 2016, just before his 60th birthday, Mark’s friend Colin persuaded him to join Lewes AC’s “couch to 5K” running course. “Thanks to the brilliant coaching, I progressed within just 10 weeks from barely being able to run at all to running a full 5K – that’s three miles in old money – in just under 30 mins.”

 

Now, six years later, Mark regularly goes out running three or four times a week, has got his parkrun time down to nearer 25 minutes, has qualified as an England Athletics-licensed run leader, and has participated in multiple races, ranging from 5-mile cross-country events to road and trail marathons – and, thanks to the encouragement of his other running buddy Anne, even a couple of ultra-marathons too, including the 50-mile Race to the King along the South Downs Way.

 

“But more importantly than just totting up miles or collecting medals,” says Mark, who now helps to deliver LAC’s beginners’ courses himself, “are all the new friendships I’ve made, within both the club and the wider running community – and also the new-found sense of confidence I now feel in my own body, despite my heart problems in the past. And of course the great thing about helping with LAC’s beginners’ course is that I get to see new people making the same discovery as me – that you really can turn your life around, literally one step at a time, just by running!”

 

So why not put a spring in your step and give running a go? Lewes Athletic Club’s next beginners’ course starts on Saturday 2nd April and costs just £30 for all 10 weekly sessions – and, if you then decide to join the club, that sum is deducted from your first membership fee.

 

To sign up or for further details, see the Lewes Athletic Club website or register your interest in future courses by emailing [email protected]