Thursday 09/04/2020

This week Instagram story updates have been filled with a new money-raising trend that requires people to run 5km, donate £5 to NHS charities and nominate 5 friends to do the same. Through some intense virtual peer pressure, this viral initiative seems to have got everyone off the sofa and raised a large amount of money for a very worthy cause within a matter of days. Never have two better birds been killed with one stone. It was my turn to step up today, after being nominated by a couple of friends last night. However, as we are not allowed out to exercise, I was forced to improvise. I decided against running lengths of the flat like a trapped madman and instead opted for 30 minutes of jogging on the spot (definitely a sign of going mad). It was surprisingly much harder than it looks but I am certain I provided the neighbours with a few giggles as I mixed jogging with star jumps, shadowboxing and occasional bursts of dancing. Moving around like this for half made me realise how much energy I had pent-up that needed expending. I felt like a flailing jack in the box that didn’t want to be put away. The health app on my phone that measures step count congratulated me for completing more steps in 30 minutes than I had done for the last month. What an accolade.