I did it, I actually did it. Yesterday I completed w9r3 and now I'm finally a graduate. YAAAAAAAAAY!
Honestly what a journey these two months have been. I am so thankful that I stumbled across c25k on my search to be more healthy. I am so thankful for this wonderful forum full of wonderful people encouraging one another. I am so thankful that I made myself start this and push on through all of those tough runs to finally get where I am now: a graduate who can run for 30mins without stopping.
My first run of the week was the easiest of the three. I set of and maintained a very, very slow pace. So slow in fact that I didn't feel tired at all when I finished it. I knew I could go a little bit faster but I wanted to make sure that there would be no reason for me to struggle to complete the run.
The second run-oh boy- let me tell you I wasn't even half way through by the time that I was struggling to breath let alone keep my breathing regular. With this run I ran the fasted I ever have run in all the weeks, and I kept up that brutal pace for more or less the whole run. I was running in the evening and there were much more people in the park then there usually is in the mornings (hence why I prefer morning runs) and I think I felt a bit self conscious about running slowly so without even really thinking about it I set of much faster than I would have usually and just kept going at that pace. But even despite how freaking hard it was I was so proud that I kept up that pace. Even had a little bit of a sprint finish. And im guessing by the number of laps that I did of the rec that I ran about 4k-4.5k in those 30mins which I am so proud of myself for!!!
The last run, yesterday was another morning run and what a beautiful morning it was. The sun was shinning the sky was mostly clear. Good weather to finish c25k with. I started off with a bit of a quick pace again but didn't manage to keep this up and had to slow down quite a bit. I think without the pressure of onlookers I didn't quite have enough in me to be as fast as last time. In fact ten minutes in the run was starting to challenge me mentally. It was a more difficult run than the second one, especially mentally. There were a lot of times when I just wished it to be over. But then I had ten minutes left and I kept telling myself I could finish it, it was almost over. Not the best run to end on but I have to say that it is quite nice to say that even when a run isn't so good I can complete it.
Couldn't write all of this yesterday as I moved back to university yesterday as well as graduating. So my first post-graduation run will also be my first experience up here. Hopefully that will be on Monday and hopefully school won't get in the way too much of my running, but we shall see.
Either way yay I'm a graduate!!