We had to run today, 3 years ago my daughter sent a text to say her and my grandson had just done week 1 run 1 of Couch to five k. What’s that says I? she explained and while i downloaded the app confessed that they only got half way through! There was some grumbling from Willow, his exact words were “just because they did it doesn’t mean we have to” so I said I wasn’t expecting him to come too i would go on my own, as anyone who’s been here a while knows, he came too and puffing and wheezing we completed our first run….. sitting at home drinking tea afterwards I was gazing lovingly at the app with one run ticked off, at the bottom of the screen was a more button…. I clicked that and found this amazing forum! I read a few posts about other peoples running journey and worked out how to write my own. A few strangers who I couldn’t believe would be interested welcomed us and said well done!
I’m great at starting things, getting all excited and then fizzling out, Once started Willow has to finish! So in the beginning, before it became habit, on the days I drove home tired and hungry thinking we’ll go tomorrow I’d be met by Willow in shorts with a cup of tea in his hand urging me to change so we could go. I bought a set of wireless ear buds so we could wear one each so i no longer had to bellow run or walk for the intervals. We graduated, it took longer than 9 weeks, we listened to music and ran for a bit longer every so often, eventually getting to the magic 5k we ran into winter and on boxing day of 2019 I carried on after we’d finished to run 6k, leaping up a high curb near the end I hurt my calf, and limped into 2020.
Fast forward to today otherwise I’ll be here forever, we had to run, woke up feeling the effects of gardening yesterday and way too much food late in the day, a low thyroid function and recent change in dose of pills, huge amounts of pain pills slopping round my body and general low mood but hey it’s our runniversary so we are going to run. we went to the park we first ran in, I took a photo as we walked into the park, we walked round once 500metres, we ran round twice 1k Willow got in the car, I walked round again and we came home. That was slower than slow, that was harder than hard, that was shorter than short but the sky is blue the sun is shining and we are smiling.
I wish to say a heartfelt thank you to the people of this forum, who cheered when we ran well who cheered us up when we didn’t and who advised when we got confused. All of you have been part of our running journey and no one has ever criticised. THANK YOU 😊
Written by
SueAppleRun
Graduate10
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Wow, many congratulations on your third runniversary! Don’t forget though that in turn, you have been part of other people’s journeys, too - including mine, so a big Thank You to you, as well!
I’m not sure if we’d have graduated without the forum, there have been runs I haven’t written about and photos I haven’t uploaded but….. there was a time in the middle of the programme that I thought we’d better run or i’ll have nothing to write about 😂
Well if you are not going to post again before Wednesday I wish you all the best for your procedure.. but I hope you will post with updates afterwards from the IC and that your stay on it will be short..🤞
Huge congratulations on your 3-year Runniversary! I really enjoyed reading the story of how you started out and discovered new joys along the way. You are modest (I note from posts above) but you most definitely have inspired others - as many of us here can vouch for. Thank you! 💐🎉🌟
That’s lovely Gail, thank you, I’ve always loved writing and running has given me something to write about, this forum a place to write and everyone’s posts are an inspiration
Happy runniversary, it’s been great to witness your running journey,. You also gave up smoking which has to be congratulated. I now wish you well on another journey and hope that you will soon be feeling much better. 🏃♀️🏃🏻👏👏
I doubt I’ll be out long this time and recover shouldn’t be much more than a week or two, I don’t know how i’ll feel after the anaesthesia and planning a walk Wednesday however short but we will see, a friend who had a much bigger op than i’m having was up the stables mucking out later same day
Ah well done and congratulations! What a journey 😊. I bet just over 3 years ago you’d never have imagined where you are now. And I am in total agreement with your last paragraph. Here’s to many more years! 🏃🏻♀️
Congratulations on your runniversary and well done for getting out there to celebrate! Agree with every word about this forum, it's got me through some tough patches (and still is, as I eye up week one run one yet again 🧐)If you don't post before your op good luck and see you on the other side🏃♀️🍀🌷
Congratulations to you both 👏👏 That was a great read about how you started on c25k. You have been encouranging and supporting others on the way, so thank you for that!
Huge congratulations on your 3 year runniversary! 👏 🎉And thank you for all of your support and encouragement since I started my running journey in Spring 2020.
You are an inspiration and a fantastic contributor on here
It is very true what you say about how good this forum is and the encouragement it gives us all from reading what other people write. It's especially great because it's normal every day people of all ages and different walks of life sharing their experiences and how they are or are not progressing. A well deserved congratulations is given here for accomplishments and there are plenty of people here also who will also give words of encouragement for people who are struggling to giver them a boost as well.
Congratulations on your 3rd runniversary, it's a great achievement. I haven't spent much time on this forum in the past couple of years, but I have seen your runs on Stava. Best wishes to you and I look forward to congratulating you on your 4th runniversary x
Well done. I'm just a couple of weeks ahead of you as I started in March 2019. I know you follow me on Strava, so you sort of know how my story has progressed to date.
Never sure whether my runniversary is the date I started C25K (11 March), the date I moved to the uninterrupted runs (24 April), or the date I graduated (7 May). Not that it really matters; I can celebrate all three.
Here's hoping you, Willow (and I) all have lots more anniversaries to come.
Whatever we celebrate is a celebration of achievem my, we took ages to graduate because i had feet problems and started again but 24 April will always be the day we started, Strava is great to see what people are running 🏃♀️
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