When my running app broke it was a revelation: ‘being better’ is about taking care of yourself | Laura Kay

After my mental health took a nosedive I deleted years' worth of data and missed targets - and the guilt that goes with them

In early 2018, I was training for the London Marathon - the first and only marathon I'll ever run in my life. I had treated myself to an expensive fitness watch that tracked my time, pace, splits - every piece of information I could ever wish to know about what I had just endured.

At the end of my final training run - a gruelling 21 miles (34km) during which I got lost on Wandsworth Common and had a lovely little cry on the bus afterwards - I threw myself down on the floor the moment I got home, only to see my watch had failed me. Twenty-one miles briefly flashed on the screen before it went blank and disappeared for ever.

Laura Kay is a former Guardian journalist and the author of three novels, including The Split, which is about running