Time flies by so quickly! Finally found a spare moment to update you all on my runs.
Run 1 was really exciting, running (not by myself!) at almost midnight along the coast and some sections which were pitch black. Very adventurous! Run 2 I found really hard which was back among my local park. I had to go really slow on that one (just under 2mph).
Finally Run 3 (or what should have been run 3) happened yesterday. I took part in the Chase the Sun 5k run and at first before it started I was really excited. Then the race began and reality quickly put me in my place!
I went at the back with what were supposed to be the slow runners. When the buzzer went off everyone sped off really fast! At first I thought, alright, it'll only be for like 20 seconds or something and then I'll slow down. Before the 20 seconds were up I was already telling myself to slow down. Then even more to slow down. Suddenly I'm going at a crawl and I see all the other slow runners passing me by and I'm like it's ok, they'll never maintain that pace... oh was I wrong! Not long after everyone else is way ahead and I'm telling myself to slow down some more that even some pedestrians are walking faster than me! A few minutes later, the 10k lot come roaring past and all the while I'm trying not to focus on them despite feeling hugely demoralised at that point.
Then I remembered you lot and what you all would say.
"No matter how slow you're going, you're beating everyone on the couch"
After that I felt immensely better and decided to not pay too much attention to the runners who were running laps around me. Though there were some encouraging ones but each no doubt has had their own struggle to get to where they currently are.
So if you're all wondering I didn't run the whole 5k. However I did complete it! I didn't do a full 28 minute run non stop (so I might need to redo run 3) but I did do intervals. I tried to run between 10 minutes or so each time though by the end I was running 5, and walk 3 minutes. I definitely ran more than I walked and at a speed that was definitely faster than Run 2 of this week. All in all I finished in just over an hour, got me a medal and I think I came last in the rankings.
What this has definitely shown me is that coming close to the end of the program doesn't make me an awesome runner. It's just started me on the path of something that requires a great deal of improvement on my part! I'm thinking I'll try a 5k again sometime next year and will work on training for it now, especially knowing that I'm what you would probably call a Level 1 runner!
Thanks for your support folks. I definitely couldn't have made it without you!
xxx
Week 8 Run 3 = disappointed
Week 8 run 1. Disaster? 
Week 8 Run 1 - Parkrun round 2 :-)
Week 8 Run 3 complete..
Week 7 Run 3 Awful - Week 8 Run 1 Awesome!
