For reasons I can't quite fathom now, whilst I know when I started Wk1 R1 of C25K, I don't know my exact graduation date - but feel safe to say that I've now been running for a whole year since graduating.
Yesterday I set out to run a route I'd planned of about 8k but it was a lovely morning, I'd hit that sweet spot of leaving all my troubles behind and because I could I decided to carry on to 10k. And this sums up how running has changed my life.
I'm not a fast runner (though I'm much faster than I ever thought was possible in the beginning), I don't have ambitions to run a marathon (though I've though 5k, 7k, 10k were all impossible distances in the past) and I don't like the idea of racing but three times a week (with the odd exceptions when life - usually work - gets in the way) I go outside and I run.
It's really that simple and it's changed my life - yes because I didn't believe I could do it and the last time I ran was in cross country at school (more than 30 years ago) and I was rubbish - but more because I make time for myself; I get outside and enjoy the seasons, the ever changing weather, the views, the sunrises the sunsets, the moon in ways I'd forgotten; I'm fitter and stronger physically and mentally; work and its stresses are more firmly in perspective, I feel more positive about myself than I have in ages and I have a virtual group of cheerleaders on here that will keep me going when the going is tough.
Running? How did I manage without it π