This is the story of how I took up running. When I was fifteen or sixteen years old, I was a bit overweight. My dream was to look a bit more attractive so I decided to start an exercise plan in order to lose weight. I also wanted to improve my general fitness level so I took up running. Of course, I had some problems with motivation at first. Getting up in the morning and going out into the rainy streets seemed almost impossible, but I pushed myself every day. I started by running for thirty minutes every day. That was a lot for me at that time, and on numerous occasions I had to forget about the pain in my lungs and muscles to keep going. After a month or two, I began increasing the distance slowly, and I bought myself a nice pair of running shoes. I didn"t want to risk, it"s much safer to run in specialist shoes. Sometimes I managed to persuade a friend or two to go running with me, but in the end it turned out I was the most persistent one. After a few months, I finally began to lose weight. But it didn"t matter to me that much. Of course, I was happy with the results, but looking attractive was not the aim anymore. Today I"m still a runner. It"s something I could not live without. You feel a kind of euphoria after your training. I had never suspected something like this would make me enjoy this sport so much.