As I’m still in a state of running MOBOI, I’ve decided to look at the positives of being injured. For starters I’ve been posting far more often on here, as a lot of the time I would be running I’m spending on writing instead. Secondly, with every injury you learn to understand and respect your body a bit more. I know what I need to do to strengthen my body to try and prevent this injury from recurring and I know that when I get back to running I’ll love it even more and fully appreciate my body for what it can do. And lastly, I’m trying out new sports and experiences in the hope of temporarily replacing running. Step forward paddle boarding!

In an attempt to try and get the CambMeetUp bloggers together a bit more, I had put a poll up in our Facebook group to try and find an activity we could all do together. Whilst bouldering was a popular choice, it couldn’t beat the appeal of paddle boarding in Milton County Park. After a bit of work to find a date we could all do and the brilliant efforts of Bethany from Cambridge Sport Lakes to be really flexible with us, Rachael, Claire, Jen, Kelly, Jess and I all turned up on a chillier than we would like Saturday morning to get out on the water.

Now Claire (group photographer extraordinaire) had tried paddle boarding numerous times before, and assured us that we would all be fine and standing before we knew it. But as we stood at the sides the rest of us all thought that there was NO WAY IN HELL WE WOULD EVER BE ABLE TO STAND.

How wrong we were. Led by our brilliant instructor Penny we all knelt on our boards and paddled to the far end of the lake (I had one keen eye on the swans). She then showed us how to stand (it involves getting into a crouch in the middle of the board) and one by one we all wobbled up. Penny then wasted no time in making us all play “world domination” (although most of us dropped back down to our knees for this!), all picking a country and trying to be the first to whack everyone else’s board and turn their country into ours. I can’t take credit for my choice – Ireland – winning. It was definitely due to whoever I had managed to tag first as I must have changed country four times.

We were all really nervous at the thought of falling into the cold, very weedy water, but for the 60 minutes we were out there only Jess took a tumble. Penny had warned us that getting back on the board could be really hard, but before I’d even had time to turn around (admittedly my turning circle was pretty large!), Jess was back on like an absolute pro – the sign of an open water swimmer!

It was a pretty windy day and it took some effort to make sure we didn’t drift into the trees. Claire assured us that this meant our efforts were even more impressive and that on a still day – should we want to try it again – we’d find it a lot easier. We even attempted some yoga (they offer classes in this!), and I was pretty happy with my attempt at one-legged dog, although I quickly realised that trying tree pose on one leg would be a step too far.

After an hour passed in no time at all, I reluctantly got off the board. I was both euphoric at how much I had enjoyed the experience and devastated that I had left it so late in the season to try it out. There are now only two weeks left before Milton County Park stop offering paddle boarding. However, I nabbed the last place on the 2.5 hour Adult Level 1 BSUPA Born to Ride session this coming weekend, which will allow me to hire a board and paddle independently at any accredited centre in the UK. Now I just need to find £700 for a board and I’ll be paddling up the Ouse before you know it…!

If you’ve ever considered paddle boarding go for it. You won’t regret it.