Hi all my VRB's. I awoke yesterday morning (2/8/23) to a message on my Forerunner 45 from Mr/Mrs/Ms Garmin themselves.
'Happy 1 year runniversary!'
Well I was so chuffed they reminded me as I've been so busy with life I didn't realise it had crept around.
What have I achieved in a year?
I managed to start the NHS C25k on August the 2nd 2022 at the age of 66 after at least 35 years of not running; and before that it was far from serious or regular. That was probably the biggest achievment, starting!
After a mixed collection of strains, aches and pains some of which had me limping around for days until the next run was due I continued on the journey. There were a number of extended rest days hence the 13 weeks rather than 9, and later on the 2nd of November I completed it. I did actually feel I was running on those 3 final 30 minute runs; although seeing the speed I see some running at I may have mis-defined the word running. Throughout that time I had support from Laura; the voice on the app, Mrs OMR; she topped up my G&T glass, OMR daughter 2 and her husband; both runners, and of course all you lovely VRB's.
Daughter 2 and I made a pact to run parkrun together but due to other life commitments we had to run it the week after completing C25K. So on the 5/11/22 I lined up with 300 other park runners. I had never run with more than my daughter before so was quite apprehensive. I crossed the line in 225th position and 151st in age graded position with a time of 30m 56s. AND no one sneered or looked down their nose at me. It was an exceptionally friendly, supporting and humbling experience. Since then I've run 16 parkruns in 5 different locations with a PB of 28m 28s although my watch recorded 27m 58s due to me starting my watch as I crossed the start line and not from the hooter. I also turned 67 in November.
I've joined my daughters running club, Cornelly Striders, who I run with regularly and run in the local summer league which is great fun... afterwards. I am holding up the rest in my age group of VM65-69 but as they say 'it's the taking part' 
The support from the club is tremendous.
I've run two organised 10k's; the first with OMR daughter 2 another part of the pact. One at Caerphilly and my local one in Porthcawl and I'm due to run the Cardiff 10k on 3/9/23. My PB is 59m 05s and was so chuffed to break the 60 minute barrier. I did enter another 10k (it was free to enter) which was mainly on trails and boy was it hilly and after the first lap I withdrew as I just couldn't face the hills again. By default I ended up finishing 16/53 in 31m 17s in the 5k although I was probably first across the line as the 5k started 30 minutes after the 10k 😂 My legs were just not ready for that type of climbing
I am still running at least 2 or 3 times a week.
How did I celebrate a year later?
Well I was a bit naughty as I had run the day before and I'd already had a slap on the legs and a spell on the naughty step for not having a rest day between runs from the forums here😜. Anyway I thought sod it I'm going to run. So I downloaded week 1 run 1 and listening to Laura again I set off on my warm up walk. I had set a workout on my watch that reversed the timings so I ran for 1m 30s and walked for 1m, well I obviously messed this up as it all got out of sync so in the end started guessing when to walk and when to run. But the most important bit, I did smile 😁 Yes I still remember that important bit of advice given over these forums.
Thank you everyone and hopefully I'll be back celebrating year 2 with maybe a HM under my belt too; itchy feet.🦶🦶
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