Thread by @SarahJ_Berry

Here's me in 2016 -- joking about wanting to learn how to ride a bike. It's an ambition I didn't achieve until 2017, and it took until June of this year for me to actually to it around London.

But if I'm completely honest, riding a bike is never something I thought I could do.

There were lots of reasons why I didn't think cycling was for me. Partly it was fear -- of drivers, of failure, of falling.

Partly it was because I didn't see myself represented in the lycra clad, male dominated cycle culture.

But partly, it was because of my body.

I've always been bigger than I want to be, and I've always been too self-conscious about it.

Over the past few years it's something I've tried to overcome -- trying diets, calorie counting, and all kinds of exercise to try and build a body I was comfortable with.

In lots of ways I haven't succeeded. Like lots of people during lockdown, sedentary days combined with limitless access to the pantry and lots of wine has taken me further away from my goal.

But in lots of ways the past few months have taught me something new: my body is capable of so much more than I thought it was.

I genuinely didn't think I'd be able to cycle with a body like mine. I didn't feel small enough, strong enough, graceful enough.

But I am.

Cycling has taught me that I'm fitter and braver and stronger than I thought, and it's led me to question what other things I might have written off because I thought I wasn't capable. Like, running for instance.

2019 was the year in which I was going to run a 5k.

I downloaded from couch to 5k in secret -- too ashamed at the thought of how people might react to the idea of me running to tell even my closest friends.

"Psssh, this'll be easy!" I told myself, looking at the first week's running schedule.

Run for 60 seconds, walk for 90 seconds.

That's a minute! Who can't run for a minute!

Me, it turns out.

It was incredibly difficult -- but I kept going. And as I progressed further through the program, I gained more confidence in my skill and opened up to friends and family about what I was trying to achieve -- even letting my loving partner join me for runs.

Soon I hit week 6 and the program really ramped up.

The challenge: walk for 5 minutes, run for 25 minutes, walk for 5 minutes.

Terrified, but hopeful, out I went.

And, probably unsurprisingly to you given the topic of this thread, I failed.

So I tried again, and I failed again. And again. And again. And again.

Try as I might, I couldn't get past 15 minutes without getting too tired to go on.

And after a few weeks of this, I gave up.

When lockdown hit in 2020 I decided to try again.

I know I can get to at least 15 minutes! I told myself. But despite repeating the program, this time I couldn't even get to 10.

Running, it seemed, wasn't for me.

But all of that was before.

Before I bought my own bike in London.

Before I cycled it around my neighbourhood, and then to Dulwich, and then to Crystal Palace, and Hyde Park, and Farringdon, and Kingston-on-Thames.

If I can cycle to Kingston-on-Thames surely I can run? All I need is a different metric of success.

And because I'm the kind of person who thrives on mutual accountability -- I'm telling you all, so you can hold me accountable, and maybe, if you're interested, join me too.

But this time, instead of trying to reach an arbitary goal like running for 5k -- I'm taking part in the #runsome challenge.

That means i'll be looking to take some of the journeys I currently take on foot or by bike as a run.

I'm starting small: by the start of November, I would like to be able to run the 0.8 miles from my house to my favourite off-license in my neighbourhood -- Hamilton Supermarket on Railton Road.

Runners out there are probably reading this and laughing at me for what a pitiful running length that is -- but that's okay!

As I've learnt with cycling, we've all got to start somewhere.

I'll be making my first attempt to #runsome on Tuesday to mark car free day.

I suspect I won't make it the whole way, but that's okay. One day I will.

If running is something you aspire to as well, and you want to join the #runsome challenge with me, then please reach out! I'm going to need all the support I can get.

In the meantime, you can find out more about #RunSome here: runsome.org