My resolution for 2022 was to run every day and I did

I don’t say it often, but I am incredibly proud of myself.

Very happy if I’m honest. For the first time in my life I made a New Year’s resolution and I’m so happy!

Every two years I set goals – usually lose weight or get back to the gym – and start with good intentions. But after a few weeks I mostly lost motivation and fell back into my old habits.

Not this year, however. No, this year I walked every 365 days of 2022. The typing feels unreal.

It all started in December 2021. Like most people, my husband Tom and I have had a pretty rough year; With the two of us getting Covid, the stress of social restrictions and moving across the country.

I solved everything by eating cheese and crackers. Many of them. packages per week.

Inevitably I arrived. More inevitably, when I wasn’t squeezing into my jeans and being horrified by my newly acquired cellulite, my mood sank even lower.

“Why don’t you walk every day in January?” suggested my friend Caroline. She had done it regularly for the past five years and swore by it.

In case you haven’t heard of it, RED January is an initiative designed to get people out of the house to go outside for a walk, jog or run to boost their endorphins and beat the winter blues.

It took some convincing, but in the end I agreed to go with her. You don’t have to run a specific distance, but we agreed that at least a mile would be a good goal.

That first run on January 1 felt good. I changed things, did something for me.

It was the start of a new year and it promised to be a good year. It was physically tough – I felt every pound I put on – but mentally I felt strong.

On the third day, that enthusiasm had already evaporated. I felt tired, sore and January 31st seemed far away. If I hadn’t taken Tom and another friend, Sophie, to the ropes, I would have given up immediately.

But I didn’t. I couldn’t.

So I walked two miles every day for the whole month.

In the end I felt ecstatic. I had set myself a challenge and stuck to it, for the first time in years. While Sophie decided to go jogging every other day, Caroline, Tom and I decided to walk all February.

The first run in February was painful. It felt like my body had made it to January 31st as we agreed and now couldn’t understand why we were there again.

In March, Caroline and I talked about continuing with it for the rest of the year. It was a terrifying thought – a month seemed like a long time, let alone 12. “But”, I thought carefully, “I’ve already made it two months – that’s already a sixth…”

So that’s it. I was obliged.

Since then I have walked in snow, sun, sleet and mud. I set my alarm for 6 a.m. when the heat wave hit so I wouldn’t run in the midday sun, and I went for a run at 10 p.m. after a friend was hospitalized.

I walked weekends in York, Berwick and Edinburgh and even wore my depressingly practical trainers on a flight to Fuerteventura so I could stick to my resolution during our family vacation.

And after we landed, when it was 5:30 PM and cool enough, I went for a run that same day – like every morning of this holiday.

I had a pretty hairy moment when I was locked up in our local park when they closed it in early winter and I managed to give myself two black eyes after falling over a curb. That was my shortest run at just 0.3km, but my longest was an impressive, at least by my standards, 10km.

The only time I almost missed a run was the day after Tom had the stomach flu. I felt good that morning and even went to my friend’s girl’s party. But on the way home my stomach started to roll.

I immediately put on my sneakers when I got home, did a quick mile and sure enough, an hour after I got back I threw up. Fortunately, it only lasted 24 hours, so the next day I got out of bed to go for another 10-minute run.

It certainly wasn’t easy, but I think it really helped me make the decision if I was going to start running every day and it was more about when I was going to start running than if I was going to start.

And of course I would never have made it without Caroline, Sophie and Tom. Our almost daily posts – plus a healthy dose of competition – have really energized me.

At the beginning of the year I thought about it every day. Finding the perfect time to leave, when I usually avoid snow or rain at the time, consumed me. Now I just go whenever I have a free moment. It’s just another part of my day.

Physically I feel so much better. I may have only lost three pounds, but I’ve lost inches from my stomach, chest, legs, and arms; my cellulite has smoothed out and I feel fitter and more vital.

Mentally, the change is much greater.

I feel that I am in control of myself, that I can face challenges and overcome them. Some days, after a particularly good run, the endorphins are buzzing in me and I am amazed for hours at what my body can do.

To be honest, I am quite nervous about retiring next year. In fact, I’ve already decided I’m going to do RED January again, not least because of my mental health.

Maybe by February 1st I’ll be ready for a break and a day indoors. But maybe, just maybe, I can’t find a reason not to go, and I go anyway. I honestly don’t know yet.

I haven’t come up with any New Year’s resolutions for 2023 yet – to be honest, I’ve been too busy focusing on 2022!

But what I do know is that it certainly made 2022 a year to remember.