Week 9, run 3 done!
I first heard about C25K last August, when my marathon-running niece told me about it. For various reasons, I didn’t get round to start thinking about it until the end of February this year. I have never run in my life before.
I decided to get kitted-out before I began, at the beginning of March. I invested in a decent pair of Brooks trainers (after gait analysis in the shop) and various layers of running gear, including thermal leggings. I had chosen the coldest March for 50 years to embark on this adventure!
On my first short runs in the early weeks I wore 5 layers, gloves, earband plus hat as I struggled through biting winds and horizontal sleet. I soon got the idea of paying attention to the wind direction!! I cottoned-on to the fact I should run out into the wind, and back with it behind me, by which time I was getting tired and grateful for a bit of a push from behind!
In the middle weeks, and longer runs, I discovered a few other aids. My W5 R3 20 minute run was problematic only in that my nose ran, and so I learned to keep my man-sized tissue in the cuff of my jacket sleeve for easy access.
Week 6 run 2 and week 7 run 2 gave me podcast hitches. During w6 r2 my podcast stopped half way through and reverted back to the intro! I took RainbowC’s advice and scrubbed my podcasts and downloaded them again (as I had then discovered the following podcast was also corrupt). I made a mistake with w7 r2 and set off doing week 8’s podcast by mistake and didn’t notice until the end, by which time I thought it had been hard!! As a result of those two glitches I invested in a Garmin, as back-up initially but also because I wanted to know how far I was running and for the future. I'm in this for the 'long run'!!
Even as recently as Friday, I was running with 3 layers of clothing and my thermal leggings! Today, a lovely sunny day with finally a warmish breeze and not the bitingly cold wind, I ditched a layer and my thermal leggings were almost too hot!!
To celebrate my final run, I decided to run with my own music and to complete 5k, however long it took. I did it in 33.33 minutes. My next goal then is to reduce that to 30 minutes. I’m well chuffed.
Thank you so much to all of you for your inspiration. To those friends who are at the same stage as me (Justmole where are you, and how are you doing?), to those of you who have just started and remind me of where I began, and to the ‘graduates’ with their welcome advice and encouragement.
What an amazing concept this plan is. It is definitely SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bounded). I was cheeky enough to order a C25K Graduate shirt to arrive in time for my next run. I shall wear it with pride! As everyone else says, if I can do this, anyone can 
I’ve done it!!
I’ve done it!
I’ve done it. 
Done it!
