Kate Bohdanowicz

I like to run. I also like to eat which is why I don’t have a runner’s physique.

Anyway, I digress.

I like to run but to stay motivated I set myself challenges. When I had a full-time job and ran on the treadmill in my lunch break, I would knock a few seconds off my 5K every week.

Then I left my job and started ambling round the park. Without a goal, it was unfulfilling. I didn’t put any effort into it: I’d stop and take phone calls or send emails.

My sister and I have two things in common. We’re both competitive and we both need a goal. So we came up with a challenge. For the first week we would run for 60 minutes. We could clock up the time however we liked – with two long runs or three smaller runs or even a very long run. Whatever.

We’d increase the running time by five minutes a week until we reached 120 minutes. This would get us running longer and more frequently. We started in August and joked that we’d be lean and lissom by Christmas.

The challenge ended yesterday. We both completed it (with the occasional week off due to operation-recovery and illness). I pound the pavements of Walthamstow, London; she of Shipley, West Yorkshire.

Our next challenge is to build up a single run until it’s 60-minutes long.  She’s virtually there although I’ve been struggling with that.

I realise I use goals in all elements of my life. I try and write 500 words of my book a day (although that has fallen by the wayside a little – more of which another time). I also holiday exclusively on the 20p pieces and £2 coins that I save (I pitched that fantastic idea to the Money pages of a newspaper but never received a response).

My Dad was the same – all lists and spreadsheets and timing his Suduko puzzles (my boyfriend does that too which begs the question, am I shacked up with my Dad?)

By the way, the lean and lissom bit never came off.  It’s the fault of the food.

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