On BBC recently there was a studio discussion on the popularity of Paddle Tennis. One commentator referred to the success of “instant gratification “.
How many of us felt instant gratification about running? A very small minority I suspect. It took me 6 months!
Yes HeavyFoot, 6 months is better than no months at all NOT 🏃🏾 running
I instantly feel pleased with myself for going out with my run kit on. I often question my life choices for the first ten minutes of every run! Then I start enjoying myself. If I’m running intervals, the payoff often isn’t until I’ve done the last one when I decide I loved the run! The main thing that was stopping me enjoying my runs was the way I was running them and my own expectations of what a runner should be like. Once I got it into my head that breathing and running at the same time is possible by slowing down I started liking running a lot more! I think I would have found it hard to persevere for a full six months not getting any gratification at all from it!
I love going out in my running gear…makes me feel as fit as a fiddle …and then I start running and wonder what the heck I’m doing it for!!! But then, when everything settles down and those toxic 10 minutes have passed, I’m there…
I would’ve packed in if I went 6 months without that feeling…so well done you for sticking with it!!!
Every run was hard but I came back so happy right from the start of C25k, but it was a while after before it felt less hard and I realised I was grinning.
Yeah! About 6 months for me too, HeavyFoot. I hated C25K so much I thought I’d better keep going as did not want to go through it again 🥴. Then the ‘gratification’ thing kicked in and I’m still at it 5 years later 🏃♀️
After every run of C25K my wife asked me how it went. My reply was unprintable. It wasn’t until much later when I’d understood my abilities (relatively limited) and realistic ambitions, that I grew to enjoy running.
My happy moment was when I completed the 20 minutes of steady, slow jogging without getting out of breath. It was so slow, it felt like running backward, but the main point was that I could do it.
I used to play squash and some badminton, and I'm afraid my main strategy was to play evil shots to keep my opponent running so I could catch my breath 🤣
I love nearly every run I do! C25k had an anxious start; was I too old to do this? Now, it is all about headspace for me.
week3run1 ✅. 3 x 17 mins with 1 min walks. 
How did your parkrun or (not)parkrun go?
