Evening you lovely lovely people - guess what? I’ve only gone and bloody done it!
Two days making sure I’m hydrated, plenty of fruit and salad today lunch & snacks.... but it was still a “cool” 24 degrees when I couldn’t leave it any later..... 17yr old then says to me “I know dad, I’ll drive you there, you can run, I’ll wait and then drive you home..... hmmmm ok (reluctantly!) I’ve been nervous enough all day, almost looking for a reason to put it off till tomorrow morning..... this is really helping me! He had his first lesson last Friday! (Good job I’ve been teaching him for the last 6 months!) Anyway......where was I.
So off we drive to Danish Camp and off I set on my 5 minute warm up walk. Laura tells me my 5 minutes are up and off I should go.... I have a new playlist tonight - various mixes and essentially a long continuous mix as each song goes to the next. First song 130bpm, 2nd 132bpm, 3rd 135bpm and so on......
Peter Rabbit, Cotton Tail and fam are all here I see some snails in Ferrari gear revving their shells daring me to race...... I show you!
First 5 minutes fairly normal, working out the aches / pains, balancing breathing and pace etc.
I reckon somewhere around 8 minutes @ 9.45pm an alarm goes off on my phone to remind me to put various animals away (pigs, geese, ducks etc)...... turns out the NHS C25K app doesn’t like being interrupted and actually goes into ‘pause’ when an alarm goes off...... these things have coincided before but the app carried on.... tonight it didn’t...... blissfully unaware of my new predicament I carry on running..... after a while I start to think maybe Laura doesn’t talk in week 3??? But hang on, she was there at 5 minutes and none of my buddies on here have mentioned missing Laura in week 3! After graduating, yes.... but not in week 9! - Realisation sets in..... bugger..... I should have heard the half time bell, I’m sure!! Or am I....
Ok - so at this point we’ve been hustled by snails, my Fitbit Versa ran out of battery before I left home, I’m running the reverse course so its a bit fresher.... I’ve had a couple of races with Cotton Tail.... now Laura had left me high and dry...... I’m English, but not typically English..... but I did something very English / British ....... I just carried on! 😂
No idea how long to go, no warnings just my headphones and (new ish) running belt.... now I know it’s not that bad. I know I’ve walked 5 minutes and I calculated roughly where I thought 30 minutes would be, based on the last time I ran this way round (which was last week (28 minutes)....
So I get to a wildlife map which I know is a short walk from the car park.... stop check Strava - 30m10sec I’d done it..... I was so happy.... I started running again. At the end of the track is the car park where I stop, lean heavily on the fence to catch a breath...... and there is my son clapping, holding my water!
I cried (Not a lot, I am British after all) in fact I’m crying now..... I can’t believe it. I really can’t! I can...... but I can’t!
To all of you - regular or not you know who you are - thank you for reading, liking, answering, advising, counciling and making me laugh.
Note to admins - No snails were hurt in the making of this sequel.
Now for consolidation, then B210K.....
Well done, excellent run despite tech issues trying to throw you off your game. Congrats on completing the programme! Again! xx
Graduate!
GRADUATE !!! YYERRR
Week 9 - Run 3 - Graduate
W5R3 - in the rain, with the dog
