I have been meaning to post for a few weeks now but bizarrely running got in the way! I wanted to share with you all my thoughts and feelings as I approached Week 9 day 3, but now I have gone and done it, graduated and am running regular (OK two so far) 5Ks.
Week 9 seemed to be upon me before I knew it, confusingly all my family are at one stage or another with C25k, my eldest son is whizzing through and has now completed week 8 day 3, but then he does not take a days rest in between - oh the enthusiasm of youth, my wife is on Week 2 day day 2 and my other son is running regular 10ks; so it was hard remembering where I was!
I had feelings of apprehension as I set off in the car to my usual park to run the last session, not that I would not be able to do it, nor about what time I would do it in, but what would come after. Would I have the drive to keep going, to be my own trainer, to motivate myself without the structure and rhythm of C25k? It is now nearly 46 years since I last did any sports coaching and then it was always others who were doing the hard work not myself.
So last Tuesday evening on a cold and windy night I set off running focusing on so many things, many of which I have picked up from this forum, back lift, breathing (thank you Laura) and my unplanned decision after only 5 mins to do what it has always said on the tin and run not one last 30 mins but to go for 5km.
Thanks to a combination of my Garmin stats and my glasses (one simply was not possible without the other), I knew that 5km was sitting just 3 or 4 mins the other side of 30mins. I had also purchased some new music, again thanks to others on the forum, I found that my previous selection of Audio Fuel was only 30mins long and by starting it at the beginning of the 5 min warm up, I found myself running the last 5 mins in an uninspiring silence. My new purchase was 45 mins long and had tracks at 155 and 160bpm and as long as I did not listen to it as music and instead use it hypnotise my legs it really worked and to think I had tried to run a few weeks ago listening to Leonard Cohen, not good for pace or morale.
I got into running mid September this year via daily Yoga exercises which I started six months ago tomorrow at the suggestion of my mother who sadly died before I had starting running and now graduated from C25k. Towards the end of the final kilometre I felt she was with me in spirit as I pushed into the unknown beyond 30 mins and into the wonderful buzz from my Garmin telling me that 5km had been done in 33.30 mins. Those last three minutes were almost surreal a true feeling of elation mixed with joy that caught me unawares, I felt really quite tearful.
So this evening I come back from the Park, a place that I have grown to love particularly in the dark when it is solely populated by fellow runners, impromptu exercise classes and dogs with luminous collars, having run for the first time consciously without Laura; we will not mention the time I brought my headphones but not my iPhone, which I have now learnt again through this forum to refer to as running 'naked'. Just 160bpm and the Garmin, the result - 30mins 18 secs. My Mum would have been proud.
Great 5k time, btw. 
Laura.....
27 runs with Laura !!!
Laura died
Get the party started...I've done it!!!!
BOOM W9R3 done! 💪🏃🏻♀️🥳
