Week 9 complete - Yay!!!

[kinjaldave]

Completed the third run of week 9 yesterday evening. Was able to run 5K in around 35 mins. This is quite an achievement for me personally as I have never been a runner and wouldn't have imagined to run even 1K two months back.

And here I am today, feeling confident of tackling distances more than 5K.

I am very grateful for the amazing C25K program and the awesome support from this amazing community of runners!!!! Thank you all - truly appreciate your encouragement

Overall I ended up doing around 6.5 K including the warm up and cool down walk.

Now the question is - what next??

[Doodles123 Graduate]

Brilliant achievement. Well done.

[Jacqui-fit450 Graduate]

Next? You go and get your graduation badge. I went one step further and got a graduation hat... and I don't even graduate until next Friday. Feeling well chuffed right now though. Just got back from my week 8 run 3 run and got a bit carried away. Actually ran 5.4k in 43 minutes (6.4k in 57 minutes including the warm up and cool down). I was only supposed to do 28 minutes. I would have stopped sooner but I swallowed some kind of fly or mosquito or something at 3 minutes in and had to burn off the extra calories!

Well done on completing the programme. I shall feel delighted when I reach that milestone next week. For now, week 9 here I come.

[kinjaldave Graduate in reply to Jacqui-fit450]

Wow , looks like you have made excellent progress at week 8 in the program. Keep it up and good luck for the wk 9 runs.

I look forward to getting my graduation badge now.

[Jacqui-fit450 Graduate in reply to kinjaldave]

Thanks. I haven't seen you add your name to the May Graduation Badge thread yet. Mind you, admin probably aren't handing them out at this time of night. You may have to wait until morning. I'm off for a long soak in a bubbly bath. It'll take a while to wipe that smile off my face.

[kinjaldave Graduate in reply to Jacqui-fit450]

Thanks for reminding, just added a comment on the May 2016 graduation thread. Will crash to sleep now........

[Beccym Graduate]

Well done! Doing good times too

[kinjaldave Graduate in reply to Beccym]

Thank you - I plan to consolidate the runs for a few weeks before deciding what next

[Beccym Graduate in reply to kinjaldave]

I just signed up for half marathon

[Josepha2263 Graduate]

Congratulations very well done. I'll be doing my W2r2 later world behind, I pray I get to the end.

[letsgoletsgo Graduate in reply to Josepha2263]

Me too.. W2r2 today also...it' s really inspiring to see people achieving the 5k, well done!

[kinjaldave Graduate in reply to Josepha2263]

Thanks!

Looking back, I think the weeks pass by very quickly. 9 weeks isn't a huge time span. Good luck for your remaining runs and I hope to see your final graduation message soon

[DiamonteSandal]

Congratulations! It really is brilliant to read experiences like yours. It's so encouraging!

I'm about to start Week 5 and so I'm still at that point where graduation seems a long way away, and yet I've already achieved so much more than I would have ever thought!

Do you have any tips as to what helped you get there?

[kinjaldave Graduate in reply to DiamonteSandal]

Thanks!

You are almost half way through the program and week 9 is certainly not far away.

Three tips based on my experience that helped me see the graduation run :

1. Enjoy the journey -- I focused on enjoying each run by listening to my body and pushing just a little bit with every run. I felt grateful for being able to complete each run as an important step in the journey to becoming a runner.

2. Keep in touch with the amazing community - It really helped to be connected to the community and reading different posts from the members. This is one of the most friendliest community I have ever come across - with everyone cheering and encouraging others to be their best.

3. Commit to completion - I told my family and friends about myself doing the C25K program. This made me accountable to complete this program. Furthermore, my wife and daughter were also inspired to start the C25K program(they are on week 5 and week 4). So, myself starting on C25K has resulted in my family embark on this journey too. I now look forward family runs in a month or so.

[DiamonteSandal in reply to kinjaldave]

Thank you! This is all great advice. I am signed up to do a Race For Life on 5th June which is toward the end of my training, so it gives me a great focal point. I also discovered today that a parkrun has started in my town - literally the first one today, which I was too late for but I have registered and will do them in future. I did Wk5 run 1 today in the park where the Race For Life will be held, and both I and my dog thoroughly enjoyed every minute!

[Hidden]

Congratulations!

[Patrick1942 Graduate]

Well done and welcome to the "Graduation" Club

[sandman2477]

Well done, a fantastic achievement.