So now she wants me to run for 20 minutes!

[davidhwynn]

Is this woman Laura never satisfied? I managed to do my W5R2 at the second attempt today, so pretty pleased with myself. It may not seem much to anyone else but it's damned close to a miracle for me. I'm being pressurised to walk/jog a 5K park run this Saturday and I'm just considering whether that would be a good way to do that 20 minute run, say if I started the park run by sticking to my programme - walk, 20 min run, walk ... then just carry on walk/jog for the rest of the 5K. Advice, please ... I can keep going until then with a mixture of gym core/aerobics (non-running) stuff

[agedsnailspace Graduate]

Sounds a great plan - just make sure you keep the discipline of the warm up walk to start and don't be tempted to hare off with everyone else.

[davelinks Graduate]

Yes, that's what I did from w6, started at the back, not at the front or you'll get trampled on as the runners come by and end up like a cardboard cutout! 😁.. do your warmup walk followed by the run your on then carry on jog/walk as you feel able to the finish...😊

[runswithdogs Graduate]

Give it a try. Worst case scenario you run too fast in the excitement and peter out before 20 minutes. But more likely you'll be spurred on by the atmosphere. It's loads of fun and very supportive. Or do your week 5 r3 before and start your week six there - I often run and walk parts of my Parkrun.

[SlowSlowKwikKwikSlow Graduate in reply to runswithdogs]

Congratulations on nailing W5R2! I second doing your W5R3 before park run and starting W6 there. There's a lot of negativity around W6R1, so I ran with a group today for support; we did take walking breaks, although not quite as long as Laura would have liked. But being out with a group was great. Remembered why I enjoyed running today.

[Dunder2004 Graduate]

Sounds like a plan. The only downside I see is that nearly everyone gets a bit carried away when running in a crowd and, without realising it, starts off a bit too fast.

If you do go for it, try to start off extra slowly.

If you have a little poke around this forum you will see that just about everyone fears W5R3 but most, actually find it much less difficult than they expected.

All the best.

[Oldfloss Administrator Graduate]

Go for it... you do it your way...just enjoy!

And no.. like me... Laura is never satisfied.. always pushing that little bit harder... you can do this.

[davidhwynn Graduate]

Do you folks on this forum never have any level of sympathy??????? I've already decided today, having repeated W5R2 today (because I was fed up with myself about how badly I'd failed it the first time!) that for me at least it really is mostly is in my mind. I don't like running, never have liked running, probably never will like running ..... and I'm thinking about a park run on Saturday. I think I've starting to lose my marbles.

[ancientrunner Graduate in reply to davidhwynn]

Haa, you're trapped like the rest of us now!!

[davidhwynn Graduate in reply to ancientrunner]

Don't I just hope so - don't yet believe it - still hate every step I'm afraid, even trying the game of counting down I'm praying there's a gap between 300 and 2.

[Joy57 Graduate]

Your plan is a good one. As has been said above, position yourself carefully towards the back of the field on starting. I did my first one during week 8 and was very ignorant - I started off near the front and got really demoralised as approx 400 people ran past me in the first 30 seconds!

[McFitty Graduate]

Just so we're clear... you didn't 'fail so badly the first time'. You had a practice run and then you nailed it.

Go and enjoy your park run. Start slow! You are doing fabulously 😊

[davidhwynn Graduate in reply to McFitty]

Understand the "didn't fail!" thing! Getting too hard on myself now, I'm afraid so doesn't work any more for me. Sooner or later (PROBABLY MUCH MUCH LATER!) I'll do all of them. I almost wish (almost!) I'd never started this thing. I get obsessed, I should have known better!

[AnneDroid Graduate]

I agree with all that has been said. If I were you I might also have a a wee sneaky look at your particular parkrun results table on the parkrun website. I'm told that some parkruns have quite a lot of walk/run participants and even people walking the whole thing but that some others don't. Maybe it's just me but I think I would be discouraged if I were a long way behind the second last person, or if I were the only person not running the whole thing. On the other hand if there were plenty of other beginners there it would be brilliant to be joining with others and feel like a big step (lots of steps!) forward.

[davidhwynn Graduate in reply to AnneDroid]

Could be right, 5K park run, don't know? My wonderful friend, a much much much younger super-fit marathon runner (don't you hate them ... well actually no, I don't, I envy her!) essentially says "YES, GET ON WITH IT!", just join in, feel part of a community, don't be concerned if you're last. She's even taking her 6-year old on her first park run this weekend, so why not me? CHICKEN????????

[Nobbywatts Graduate]

I have to be honest, for some reason I'm very apprehensive of doing a park run and yet I KNOW I can run 5k as have done various fun runs of the same distance. I've been snooping about the park run website, looking at the different ones I could do, and then not doing anything about it. Yet bizarrely I'm happy to go out on my own and do 4k or 5k. I think it's that pride thing of not wanting to be last ....

[davidhwynn Graduate in reply to Nobbywatts]

Nobbywatts I know what you mean. I've researched results on my local park run, don't think I would be last, most likely near the back though. I've never run 5K, ever! BUT I could walk it quicker than some of the people at the back. Haven't made up my mind yet, I'll see .......

[Nobbywatts Graduate in reply to davidhwynn]

Daft isn't it? I will do one one day though. I often work on Saturday's though (but not EVERY Saturday!). We should pick a date in a month or so's time and both book into a local,park run and then report back here!

[Joy57 Graduate]

davidhwynn & Nobbywatts , I'd say don't overthink it, just go out and do it. That's what I did, I didn't look at any results beforehand, I think it would have (wrongly) put me off doing it altogether.

[Nobbywatts Graduate in reply to Joy57]

You're right - sometimes on my way to work I pass a park run just getting started. I see all the people walking to the start line and the marshals chatting and setting it up (it takes place in a field by the A414) . It's not my local one so I probably wouldn't do that one, but so far it's the nearest I've come to one!