An interesting week

[Windswept1]

Hi all,

last Saturday did my second post graduation 5k. It was the local equivalent of a race for life but I think to badge it that you need more people, so our annual event is called the Women's 5k cancer challenge. It is a fun event but with some serious runners at the front, followed by everyone else including families etc. There was a woman in pink with a pink wig, tutu and sparkly make up and a label saying 'Powered by fairy Dust' :-).

Anyway my time was slower than the previous 5k, but there were more uphill bits so I wasn't disappointed. Monday I was full of the cold and didn't run and Wednesday morning felt lousy so slept in. The weather was cold, wet & windy so in the afternoon I pushed myself to go to the gym and use the treadmill. My plan was to maybe just do 20 minutes, but then a strange thing happened. I started wanting to go faster, so I speeded up, then slowed down and kept repeating this for 45 minutes. Because I am a technophobe I don't use a lot of the monitoring gear that some of you use but it was interesting to see what I was doing on the treadmill screen. I prefer to run outside but not when very windy.

Yesterday was the Stornoway Half Marathon & 10k. I was doing the 10k - first since graduation and was very nervous, but everyone was very encouraging, the conditions were perfect and although I walked up the steeper slopes I was about 10 minutes faster than when I did one last October - although by no means fast at 1h 21m.

Considering at the start of the year running for 10 minutes was a challenge, I think at 59 I'm doing ok.

So for those of you starting out or losing motivation, just keep at it and take it slowly.

[Bazza1234 Graduate]

Yes -- it is encouraging that we seem to get faster,stronger , fitter nearly every time we run. There must be a limit to it somewhere-- but I will take what I can while I can!!!

[Ullyrunner Graduate]

Sounds like two very good runs there Windswept. Well done and keep revelling in your new found prowess!