It’s not often that I’m entirely sure about whether a decision I make is a good or bad idea. Deciding to stick to my new year’s resolution of running whenever possible, however, has proven to be the best idea I’ve had in quite some time.

I guess I started running a couple of years ago but never took it seriously and was only doing it every now and then, if I really, really felt like it and there was absolutely nothing else to do. A few months ago, however, I started doing it more often and, by the end of last year, I made the decision to make it my main hobby.

I mean, running has everything going for it, especially as a summer activity: it’s free, it can take you to gorgeous locations (if you don’t stick to running around your neighbourhood), it keeps you (well, me at least) away from malls, it’s healthy… Also, the fact that I had a running partner helped incredibly as I knew exactly how easy it was to be lazy and just choose to stay home if I was to go by myself. But when my friend Stacey told me, last year, that she wanted to start taking running seriously as well, our lives really changed (I know it sounds cheesy but they really did).

In the beginning of the year, Stacey and I decided to start entering running events, to give ourselves the necessary motivation to keep on running. We knew it would be easy to do in summer but were already anticipating a tough winter (which we’re only just starting now).

These official running events – that we pay to enter – mean that we feel forced to train for them whenever we can and they work as the incentive we need to get off our lazy bums and put the running shoes on.

We’ll be running on fifth official event of this year this coming sunday – the 10km run which is part of the Hobsonville Point Runway Challenge. We started the list of official running events with an amazing run on Waiheke Island back in January and, other than the over-crowded and overall annoying Round the Bays (Never. Again.), we’ve been doing some excellent runs – the Coatesville Classic in March was an example of a really beautiful run.

We have also just signed up for the Taupo Half Marathon, which will happen on August 7. At this stage, I’m nowhere near close to being ready to run a half-marathon. My longest run so far was a 16km one and I can’t tell you how bored I was. I guess the only way to solve that is to work on improving my times – the assumption being that the faster I run, the less bored I’ll get.

With winter fast approaching and with the half-marathon happening at the height of the cold season, in the centre of the North Island (where it’s really freaking cold!), we’re really going to have to harden up.

I know I have to prepare for a lot of running sessions in the cold and rain but I can’t tell you how excited I am about it. I’m not sure I’ll ever run a full marathon (I mean, really, who has the time?!) but one can dream…