Beyond the Mat: Finding My Stride

From yoga mat to running shoes — a journey of perseverance, self-discovery and the unexpected joy of becoming a beginner again.

Running has never been a stranger to me.

Throughout my life, it has appeared in one form or another. From my days as a young, pigtailed girl, to my footloose and fancy-free student years, through adulthood with a running partner, and later as a proud mother watching my daughter fill the trophy shelf with her successes over 800 metres.

Running, it seemed, was destined to remain part of my life. The rather amusing thing is that, despite being blessed with long legs, I could never really claim to be much of a runner myself!

Red-faced, breathless and with my chest heaving, I would wonder how on earth anyone could possibly find pleasure in something that felt quite so uncomfortable.

And then I discovered yoga.

During my very first yoga teacher training, my guru told me that I needed nothing else beyond my yoga practice.

What a relief! Permission, it seemed, to hang up my running shoes for good.

And he wasn't wrong about the value of yoga. My practice has served me extraordinarily well over the years. It has been my constant companion, my discipline, my refuge and my teacher.

Yet, despite this, running continued to beckon.

Every so often, I would return to it, full of enthusiasm and determination, only to find myself once again struggling for breath, lacking stamina and feeling rather defeated.

From an Ayurvedic perspective, I had my explanations. My tendency towards Vata imbalance seemed to manifest in my difficulty sustaining endurance, while the Pitta element of my constitution ensured that I was far too determined to give up without a fight!

A rather frustrating combination, as you can imagine.

And so, somewhere along the way, I had quietly accepted that perhaps I simply wasn't built for running.

But what if I was wrong?

Now, on the other side of menopause, perhaps not the most obvious time to embark upon a new cardiovascular challenge, I found myself wondering whether I had been too quick to accept my limitations.

After all, I had spent decades teaching others about patience, perseverance, awareness and the extraordinary capacity of the body to adapt.

Could I take the discipline cultivated through 26 years of yoga practice and apply it to something that had always challenged me?

There was only one way to find out.

I downloaded Couch to 5K.

And so began my latest adventure.

The programme was wonderfully manageable. Small, achievable steps, gradually building confidence and endurance. For perhaps the first time, running didn't feel like an impossible task. There was structure, encouragement and, most importantly, progress.

But progress doesn't happen simply because we want it to.

It requires showing up.

And showing up during a Scottish winter requires a particular kind of determination!

Cold, dark evenings, wind, rain, icy pavements... I mean, who in their right mind willingly removes layers of warm clothing to head outside on a freezing winter's evening?!

There were plenty of occasions when the comfort of home seemed infinitely more appealing.

Yet something from my years of yoga practice began to emerge. The discipline of simply turning up, regardless of how I felt.

I started to understand the wisdom behind Nike's famous slogan: Just Do It.

Don't spend half an hour debating whether to go. Don't dwell on the weather or anticipate how difficult it might feel.

Put on the trainers. Open the door. Go.

More often than not, the hardest part was getting started.

Enter Becca!

One thing I've learnt from teaching yoga is the importance of community.

My students frequently admit that they would never push themselves quite so much in their home practice. There's something about turning up to a class, sharing the experience and having someone gently encourage you beyond your perceived limitations.

Why should running be any different?

I needed a running companion.

And so entered Becca, the other half of what has now become our rather exclusive running club of two!

Together we've navigated aching muscles, unexpected pains, questionable weather conditions and moments when our enthusiasm has been somewhat lacking.

We've also shared plenty of laughter, conversations that make the miles disappear, and the wonderful satisfaction of achieving something that once seemed beyond our reach.

We've run 5Ks, tackled 10Ks and gradually discovered that distances which once felt daunting are becoming increasingly manageable.

And now?

Well, we've decided to take things a little further.

The Edinburgh Half Marathon. May 2027. 13.1 miles.

Yes, really!

The teacher becomes the student

Perhaps one of the most fascinating aspects of this journey has been discovering my body in an entirely different way.

After so many years of practising and teaching yoga, I thought I knew my body rather well.

I understand its strengths, its limitations, its patterns and its tendencies. I've spent decades exploring the relationship between movement, breath, awareness and the mind.

Yet running has introduced me to sensations, challenges and experiences that are entirely new.

It has made me question assumptions I've held about my physical capabilities. It has challenged my patience, tested my determination and reminded me that experience in one discipline doesn't necessarily make us accomplished in another.

And how refreshing that is!

To be a beginner again. To have something new to learn. To discover that, even at this stage of life, there are still possibilities waiting to be explored.

There have been moments of doubt, of course. There will undoubtedly be more.

But I'm beginning to realise that perhaps the greatest obstacle was never my lack of stamina.

Perhaps it was the story I had been telling myself for years: I'm just not a runner.

Beyond the mat

This journey has already given me much to reflect upon, and we've barely begun preparing for the half marathon.

I'm curious to discover how my yoga practice might support my running, how Ayurvedic principles can inform my approach to training and recovery, and what lessons might emerge as the distances increase.

But more than anything, I'm interested in what happens when we challenge the limitations we've quietly placed upon ourselves.

After all, yoga has never been simply about what happens on the mat.

It's about how we meet life's challenges, how we respond to discomfort, how we listen to ourselves and how we continue to grow.

And perhaps, just perhaps, it's about discovering that we are capable of more than we ever imagined.

So, from the yoga mat to the running shoes, this is my journey towards 13.1 miles.

I have no idea quite how it will unfold. There will be challenges, I'm sure, probably a few aches and pains, plenty of laughter and, hopefully, a good deal of learning along the way.

But that's rather the point, isn't it?

The destination may be Edinburgh, but the real journey is everything that happens between here and there.

And I'd love you to come along for the run.