I know some of you will have read my Mum's (Limberlou) posts because she has said how supportive, helpful and kind people have been when she has posted here. I just wanted to give you the other side of the story of her runs.
I am training to get into the Army, having done no exercise for about a decade. I decided to take up running and did C25kW1.
When Moth decided she would like to join in, I did C25kW1 again with her and then another 2 W1 runs with her just for good measure as she didn't feel ready for W2 yet! We don't live near eachother so we mostly run separately but we have been joining forces for about 1 run a week, which gives me a little recovery time as I am trying to smash times the rest of the week.
I then got Moth some of those socks with separate toes (for anyone who suffers with toe blisters or has toes which like to tread on eachother, we cannot recommend them highly enough, we have had no blisters since).
Moth has always suffered from dodgy joints, bad back, dodgy sore feet, rubs blisters by looking at a pair of shoes etc. so neither of us were prepared for what happened next.
W2 came and we had a bit of a disaster, 2 steps in and Moth felt a ping in her leg which she ran through, a very slow time this week and an upset Moth. 2 recovery days later and she was back in the saddle. Moth still of the opinion that she can't see herself ever running for half an hour.
A very important thing then happened - Moth retired! Her work gave her a Forerunner 30 as a leaving present so there was no stopping her from this point...
W3 had a bit of a breakthrough where Moth felt she was actually running. Up to this point she had been saying she felt as though she was shuffling along and holding me back "Go ahead without me, save yourself" yadda yadda... I believe that this moment and the Garmin combining resulted in the birth of a new runner...
W4 was uneventful but for W5 we moved to the old Railway Track (now a cycle path called the Tarka Trail) so that we could carry out our 20 minute run in peace without having to stop to cross roads every 12 seconds. Moth had built this up into something massive in her head but absolutely smashed it!
The weeks flew by (as did Moth) and I see on my Strava medals appearing, new PBs, new achievements for a mile, 2 miles but still she is grasping for that elusive 5k which, I reminded her, I only managed when I included the warm up and cool down walk and I have a faster pace than her. I entered Moth for Race At Your Pace so that when she had graduated she could also apply for her medal and top as she would have done 25 miles over the month, a nice little incentive and a treat for when she gets there.
Setback: Moth went to the Drs and had a useless woman make her feel really small and suggest that "at her age" ("at her age"! b**ddy cheek) she start some gentle exercise to bring her blood pressure down. I was fuming. She was so disappointed but I think there were other factors at play including a stressful day the day before. Moth dusted herself off and carried on running to show that b**ddy woman what "gentle exercise" looked like...
Graduation run came, Moth was so excited that she came up to my house and we did it after I finished work and... FLOP! All of the pollen ever had descended upon us, Moth was struggling with her breathing, it was hotter than hell and the glorious graduation run we had been so excited for was fairly miserable and still no 5k. I pointed out that she had been swimming for the first time this century the day before, with a toddler, her body was probably still tired from that but she was pretty upset about it.
Yesterday Moth did a post-graduation run. Without me. She just ran, just for 30 minutes, then realising that she was close to her 5k she kept running and managed to achieve her 5k in 40 minutes.
I AM SO PROUD OF HER! She is twice my age and has really thrown herself into C25k and achieved her goal. I want to thank everyone on here who has encouraged her because it really has made a difference. There are only so many times I can tell her how well she is doing before she just takes it as me being biased so WELL DONE MOTH and well done to everyone on here, whether you are on run 1 or run 101!
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Beyond Couch to 5k runs now on available on the app! ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Fish, chips and mushy peas!
Hello all - 71 years old and hoping to run!
