Finally managed to pull this off after completing the 9 weeks back in October 2013.
I followed a 6 week Runners World plan with the aim of pushing from 31:30 to 30:00, and today (and with a considerable head wind which didn't become a tailwind when I turned around!), I cracked the 30 minutes AT LAST!!!
29:47.9 was my time according to Mr Gary Garmin. Last 1k was a bit wobbly at 6:11, but I'd put in the groundwork in the previous 4km.
Really proud of myself for a change.
AND new shoes are on the way as celebration - will post the obligatory picture when they arrive!
So so happy, I'm going to eat a cake!
Written by
andrewhagger
Graduate
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I'm still a bit away from the fabled 30 minute 5K at 34:36 (last parkrun time). But I may well give that Runners World plan a go in the coming weeks. It'll at least get me a bit nearer I would hope.
Thanks Rob - I was surprisingly emotional about it, more because it's taken a long time to get to it. When I started C25K, I thought - naively when I look back - that it was a kind of guarantee, so if you followed the podcasts then you could not fail to do 5k in 30 minutes. So now I feel like I've really graduated!
Oh whoa you'll be using your reserves of determination that day then! Good thing is you can have a nice sit down in the middle, on your bike, before you hop off and pound out your championship 5km.
All the very best with it and cool runnings to you!
Congratulations! And thanks for the tip re runners world plans. I have a more modest ambition than you - to get under 35 minutes. The trouble is I have trouble holding written plans in my head when huffing and puffing. How did you manage it? Does anyone know if there a Laura version of Runners World plans (which look really good) so you can simply listen and obey orders?
Most of the running in the plan is just "run 4 miles easy" or "run for 60 minutes", so it wasn't too hard to remember, which is good because I tend to think about all sorts of things when I'm running, like shopping!
The only thing that confused/annoyed me was how - with the aim being 5km - there was a mixing of imperial and metric measurements.
The "easy" is the important bit I think - it seems to work the muscles harder from having to do more of the running action, but it is much less taxing on the huffing and puffing side - so you may have a bit of jelly legs, but you can tell everyone about it
The hills required a bit more working out, because they were 20 seconds up a hill, so what I did was: 1 - chose a starting point with a landmark (in my case a lamp post); 2 - did the first run at about as fast as I could do while checking my garmin for the time; 3 - found a similar landmark for the end of the run; 4 - walked back down and repeated the session using those measurements for however many times I had to do it, so I didn't have to check my watch or hold any info in my head. Not enough time to think about shopping on these though
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Yay! First sub 30 min 5k! 
Sub 30 Parkrun 
1st sub 30 minute 5k!
2nd sub 30 mins Parkrun ! :)
