W7R1 Completed...

[___FIAWB___]

That means I completed W5R3 and W6R3 too! To be honest I was a little worried about both of those prior to doing them, but I've come to realise I'm a better tortoise than I am a hare.

I've never been a runner, and never had any interest in running. I used to swim competitively when younger and I do cycle a few times a week (less than 100km a week in all). Never saw the point of running though... however, for some unremembered reason I downloaded the C25K podcasts many years ago but never used them. My eldest sister is a graduate, and my wife got up to about week 7 around the same time (a few years back).

Anyway, 7 weeks ago I decided I'd give it a go, and bit the bullet the same evening. After finishing W1 and W2R1, I committed further, and went out and invested in some running shorts and shoes.

I failed W4R3 the first time around, but repeated it without any problems the next evening. Since then it's been steady progress. I'm based in Singapore so the heat and humidity creates an additional challenge, but just as I could when swimming in my teens, I'm re-learning to listen to my body again.

At the end of W6R3 Laura said I can classify myself as a runner now. You know what, I guess I am! I'm already thinking about what to do after I graduate in a few weeks (a month before I turn 50). I won't be hitting 5K in 30 minutes anytime soon at the pace I currently run, so running 5K itself could certainly be a target for sometime in the near future, and a sub-30 minutes 5K a more distant target after that.

Like others have commented, reading other people's posts on this forum has been a huge help. The humour, the concerns encouraged away and the general support has already made it feel like I'm not doing this alone, even though I'm running alone, and even though this is my first post.

For those of you, like me, that are still in progress, good luck. Let's keep going, one step at a time!