W5r3

[Wizzie1967]

Did it at first go. Very slow but very proud. Even beginning to believe I could eventually go to park run and not look total idiot!

[Bazza1234 Graduate]

You know - you could go to parkrun this very weekend. Plenty of us have incorporated our C25K runs into parkrun. I started doing parkrun when I started W2D1 of C25K - I did the warmup and cooldown walks - as well as the run/walk intervals (of course ! ) Now this didn't get me all the way to the finish line (5K) - so I just made it up a bit as I went along - ran a bit walked a bit - depending on how I felt at the time - eventually I crossed the finish line in around 40 minutes ( if I recall correctly ) - I am now pushing at the 30 minute "barrier"

I found that it added interest and motivation to my new adventure (C25K)

[AvatheGardener Graduate]

Well done Wizzie - you will get there

W5R3 in the bag is such a good feeling. you will also be able to get through W6R1 although it is totally a wolf in sheep's clothing and bites a great number of people on the way through

[Hidden]

really well done, great to have that run under your belt

Go try parkrun , it is for all abilities age pace etc , you certainly wouldn't look an idiot

lots do run/walks or even walk it all , it can never be a fail because you are doing something so many aren't that is a plus

[Qscout Graduate]

You could definitley do a park run. I cannot speak for your local one but any I have been to have been really friendly, and make no judgement at all regarding your ability. There are plenty who walk all of it so no problem in with c25k. By the time you do 5 min warm up and the subsequent walk/runs, you will probably not too far off the finishline.

And if your warm down needs to be 10/15 mins so what. Its all good for you. I found the motivation from the people there, the time reduction and the hope of getting a free t-shirt a great help.

[Glossy Graduate]

Well done! Such a great achievement.

[gary_bart]

You know? If you subscribe (carelessly, I would guess) to the idea that someone could "look like an idiot" for struggling against their own life obstacles, perhaps not over-gracefully, then you're cheering for the wrong team. You're joining forces with anyone who would run you down (or any of your friends, here, down) for trying things without ... I don't know ... "looking cool" or something like that. You're joining up with that lot to destroy all the strugglers before they can make it through. In a way, you are. Do you see that? In a certain sense?

Please don't take this personally. In fact, take it as impersonally as possible. I've done the same thing, myself, often enough in life. It's a very natural thing to do. We all probably have. It's just that when one pauses a bit to think about the more abstract nature of what we do when either knocking something or someone, or just agreeing with our own knockers, levellers, pullers down, fun police, etc, is we help it along by even just submitting - as if they were somehow right in being this Wrong. So maybe it's time to start actively resisting the pull of this natural tendency.

In your case, *particularly* if you are still feeling self-conscious enough about your running to want to hide it away as if it was something shameful, you do have (*because* of this very feeling you now have) a really good opportunity here to quietly strike a little blow against the kind of tendency (in all of us, in all of us) that I've indicated above. You can't tear the whole rotten thing down all at once, but if you say "To hell with my shame; I'm going to just bloody run, anyway", you can get a nice kick in at the ankle of the Beast. Honestly. Just reflect a bit. Draw off to some distance, until you can agree that I'm absolutely dead right (I AM absolutely dead right on this point; I just know it), and then realise that every little bit counts; and then maybe go and do a parkrun, soon, out of sheer bloodymindedness? Just to say, "No, you don't!" to that horrible little kid in some schoolyard, years ago, who started this whole avalance of rotting things off.

Edit: Sorry! Well done! W5R3 is a big achievement. You can be proud of yourself for making it on the first go like this.