It’s been about five years since I did any form of organised exercise and probably 10 since I ran anywhere, but in an irrational, ill-conceived moment of insanity I not only signed myself up for the Canberra Times Fun Run, but also the regimented training sessions and created a team for the ACT Wonks*.

If you’re going to run, you might as well run properly.

The key issue with this plan is fairly obvious, I am not fit. I am very unfit. Seriously unfit. And I have eight weeks to find the muscle power, endurance and desire to run 10km.

Also it turns out running training is kind of like torture where they make you get up at the crack of dawn to run in circles for what seems like an eternity before they break your spirit with sprints and lunges. I have never before been so aware of the fact that I possess calves and thighs.

To offset the pain I created a fundraiser page for a little known Queensland charity that helps deaf children learn to speak and have gone about bullying my ACT Wonk friends into running with me.

Things I have learnt so far:

• I like drinking water. A lot.
• Frost is not fun to stick your knees in.
• Minus four degrees actually does feel like minus four degrees at six in the morning.
• The second day after training hurts more then the first.
• Lake Burley Griffin looks amazing at sunrise.

*wonk (wongk) noun

An expert who studies a subject or issue thoroughly and excessively.

This word is most often encountered in the term “policy wonk”. There are many speculations about the origin of the word, for example an acronym for WithOut Normal Knowledge, or the reverse spelling of the word know, but these claims are not supported by evidence.

Commonly used to describe Canberra’s political nerds and news junkies.