The next thing I did was to hire the local athletics track for an hour, it only cost £1.
My husband, Tony, came with me and he held a belt around my waist as we set off on my first few steps running. It was a very clumsy affair and it took a lot of effort but hey, I had taken my first big step towards my goal! I felt like a baby elephant but I didn’t care.
After a while, I got confident enough for Tony to let go of the belt and he just walked beside me. Arms and legs were flying all over the place and I was not moving very fast but I felt good.
I kept this up for a few sessions improving with confidence.
As you can see below, it was not graceful or fluid but it was a start.
After that I was told about the ‘hop-skip’ method of running and used this for warming up and confidence.
It was then that I was fortunate enough to be put in touch with Julian Wills, a British Triathlon coach who had worked with disabled athletes though never with an amputee.
Julian is quite happy to answer any questions you might have. Just click on his picture above.