Graduation!! No one is more surprised than me!

[Wickwarrunner]

After probably the very worst preparation for a 30 minute run (too much food and too many glasses of wine last night for my husband's birthday!) I dragged my husband out for my graduation run this morning (he's on W9R1). The weather wasn't great, bit of rain in the air and I was feeling a bit delicate after last night's celebrations but this was it. The big one. And I was adamant that I was going to do it, and hopefully do it in style!

We've never run together before so we were quite excited about the prospect. It turned out to be a bit tricky, as he runs at about double my pace and he was soon fading into the distance, but it was nice to know he was around somewhere, albeit over the horizon!

It was a truly amazing feeling to finish it, definitely more significant than I was expecting and no one is more surprised than me! Around 3 months ago, I was a very committed NON runner. I've been adamant to anyone that enquired that running was for fitness mad crazy people whose knees were probably going to fall apart. I was doing absolutely no exercise, and whilst I'd lost a lot of weight over the last 2 years, but I was incredibly unfit. I was suffering with daily discomfort from a post-pregnancy varicose vein in my calf for which I was considering paying for surgery on. I was on an endless diet to maintain my new weight and needed to start an exercise programme which could enable me to relax the reins on my eating...

Fast forward 3 months after I stumbled across a link to C25K on Netmums, I feel like a different person. Running has changed my life in more ways than just fitness, muscle tone and curing the varicose vein (or at least the symptoms) as well as allowing me a few more treats. I feel that by achieving something I'd previously thought impossible, my perspective on what I can achieve more generally has shifted; I'm feeling braver and have taken on new responsibilities at work which previously I'd not have thought I was capable of. And this is all down to breaking both the mental and physical barriers of learning to run. Amazing!

Big thanks to everyone who's supported me on this forum, it's a brilliant place, and enormous thanks to the NHS (and Laura obviously) who have helped a lot of people, including me today, to achieve something rather brilliant

[Poppy2010 Graduate]

Lovely blog! Congratulations on your graduation, hope you found your other half at the end! Get that badge now, and enjoy being a runner!

[justmole Graduate]

well done you- fantastic x x

[PamJK Graduate]

My husband's just asked me if I'm alright. Why? Because I welled up as I was reading your blog.

Well done you. Sounds like a great graduation run. x

[Wickwarrunner Graduate in reply to PamJK]

Wow! Thanks! What a nice comment. I've definitely cried more than a few tears reading some of the blogs, so inspirational

[gmab51 Graduate]

Congratulations, happy future running

[karenmac70 Graduate]

Congratulations on your graduation!!!! Well done and Happy Running!!!

[greenlegs Graduate]

Well done - especially for the other things you've done as a result of learning to run! It really is life changing, isn't it?

[Wickwarrunner Graduate in reply to greenlegs]

Thanks Greenlegs, and thanks for all your great comments and replies to blog posts over the last few months, it's been much appreciated - and not just on my posts, your comments on plenty of other bloggers' posts have been really helpful

[greenlegs Graduate in reply to Wickwarrunner]

Thanks - and you're very welcome! This site, and succeeding with running, has been brilliant for me too, and it's good if I've shared some of that.

[Anniemurph Graduate]

Congratulations on your graduation - fantastic achievement! And a lovely blog, too

[Caledonia Graduate]

Congratulations on your brilliant achievement and amazingly positive outlook on life!

[Hambletron Graduate]

Congratulations! It's a great feeling! I did mine yesterday too!

Well Done!!

[CouchCarrot Graduate]

I noticed this blog a little late - congratulations!